CM 


THE  PASSING 


—OF   THE  — 


Jttitan  mt&  Buffalo 


-BY- 

31.  ?L;'?Ii] 
LX 


THE  PASSING 


—OF   THE  — 


-BY- 

31.  TIL 


GEO.  \V.  MOYLE  PUBLISHING  CO 

337   EAST  THIRD  STREET 
LONG   BEACH,   CAL. 


£77 

H-5 


PINE  RIDGE  AND   ROSEBUD  AGENCIES,   SOUTH   DAKOTA 
Two  Strikes,   Pine  Ridge  and  Rosebud  Sioux 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 


HISTORY  REVIEW  OF  INDIANS  IN  UNITED  STATES 

Indian  history  begins  with  the  advent  of  the  white  people 
upon  this  continent.  Much  of  what  has  been  written  about  the 
pre-Columbian  period  is  but  a  repetition  of  old  fancies,  legends 
and  traditions.  There  are  a  few  mounds  or  graves  with  their 
contents  some  inscriptions  and  some  pottery  resembling  pres 
ent  tools  and  implements  common  to  the  world.  Excepting 
these  and  his  descendants  and  their  legends  the  pre-Columbian 
Aboriginal  stands  a  mythe.  The  mounds  or  earth  works  found 
in  New  York,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Ohio  and  elsewhere  were 
for  defence,  residence  or  burial  places.  Built  along  streams 
they  were  frequently  in  the  vicinity  of  rich  alluvial  soil  where 
corn  or  other  crops  were  easily  raised. 

The  cave  and  cliff  dwellings  of  the  rivers  and  canyons  of 
Utah,  Colorado,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  and  the  ruined 
towns  or  pueblos  on  the  plains  in  the  same  regions,  were  also 
for  defence  and  residence.  Some  of  the  ancient  ruins  which 
have  been  restored  on  paper  from  the  foundation  lines  are 
deemed  to  have  been  communal  houses.  These  three  grades 
or  kinds  of  structures  each  conforming  to  the  demand  of 
climate  were  found  by  the  Europeans  on  their  first  settlement 
in  what  were  the  Colonies  of  England,  France  and  Spain.  The 
antiquity  of  these  structures  was  not  determined  by  them. 
The  ruined  cave  towns  and  cliff  dwellings  on  the  plains  or 
along  streams  in  Colorado,  Utah,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 
and  in  some  cases  adjacent  to  the  present  Pueblos  have  long 
been  peopled  by  romance  with  legends  of  a  race  anterior  to 
the  ancestors  of  the  present  Indians.  They  have  been  maped, 
plated,  described,  painted  and  photographed  until  nothing  new 
can  be  said  about  them.  Investigation  shows  tha  tthe  Pueblos 
were  built  of  adobe  or  sundried  bricks  or  stone  blocks  broken 
from  the  sandstone,  adjacent  or  bowlders  taken  from  the  rivers 
or  streams  and  never  of  dressed  stone  as  known  to  the  whites, 
that  they  were  the  homes  of  the  ancestry  of  the  present  Indians 
of  the  towns  of  the  vicinity  and  a  part  of  the  American  race. 

The  great  area  of  the  country  covered  by  these  ruins  is  no 
evidence  that  it  contained  a  vast  population  for  the  country 
itself  its  resources  and  features  prevented  a  large  population 
and  a  small  population  abandoning  easily  built  houses  from 
time  to  time  for  economical  reasons  or  flying  to  cave  or  cliff 
dwellings  for  protection  against  a  foe,  or  escape  sudden  in 

1 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

roads  of  water  will  account  for  the  great  number  of  ruins  or 
dwellings.  The  present  Pueblo  Indians  of  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico  living  in  the  regions  of  these  ruins  are  not  a  mysterious 
people  nor  a  more  ancient  people  than  other  tribes  of  North 
American  Indians.  Six  of  the  Moqui  towns  are  inhabited  by 
Shosshone  Indians.  The  people  of  the  seventh  Town  Tewa 
originally  from  the  Valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  are  probably 
also  Shoshone  as  well  as  those  of  the  19  Pueblos  of  New 
Mexico.  They  are  all  probably  a  portion  of  the  down  drift 
of  the  Shoshone  movement  centuries  ago  which  came  from 
the  North  and  went  South  down  the  Valleys  on  the  East  and 
West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Rio  Grande,  thence  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  great  variety  of  life  among  the  various  tribes  of  peo 
ple  on  this  continent  when  first  noted  by  the  whites  is  confus 
ing  on  review  and  furnishes  but  little  grounds  for  comparison. 

The  varying  degrees  of  progress  or  of  detail  of  daily 
tribal  life  are  perplexing.  Still  climate  of  the  several  sections 
in  which  the  Aborigines  were  found  in  these  varying  condi 
tions  will  account  for  much  of  the  difference  in  customs,  forms 
and  modes  of  life. 

It  is  in  evidence  that  many  Indian  tribes  have  become 
extinct  from  various  causes  especially  war  famine  and  disease 
since  white  man  came  to  this  continent.  Others  were  de 
scribed  by  the  Indians  as  having  become  extinct  long  prior  to 
the  coming  of  the  "paleface".  So  by  observation  and  tradi 
tion  as  well  as  their  own  statements  the  thought  is  forced 
that  the  Indian  Nation  or  tribes  were  on  the  decline  at  the  date 
of  the  arrival  of  the  whites  under  Columbus.  Still  with  all 
this  presumably  a  large  Aboriginal  population  in  what  is  now 
the  United  States,  not  a  vestage  remains  to  tell  of  the  so  called 
pre-Columbian  men  and  women,  except  now  and  then  a  mound, 
a  fort,  a  pueblo  or  grave  and  traditions  and  legends. 

The  Europeans  found  the  Indians  self  sustaining  and  self 
reliant  with  tribal  Governments,  many  forms  of  worship  and 
many  superstitutions  with  ample  clothing  of  skins  and  furs 
and  food  fairly  well  supplied.  They  were  wild  men  and  women 
to  whom  the  restrains  of  a  foreign  control  became  as  bonds  of 
steel.  In  1832,  George  Catlin,  the  eminent  ethnologist  from 
observation  gave  the  rank  and  grades  of  men  in  the  various 
Indian  tribtes  which  with  some  slight  modifications  for  local 
forms  and  necessities  were  general.  The  United  States  since 
establishing  the  reservation  system  has  done  much  towards 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

doing  away  with  these  grades.  The  Indian  agents  then  and 
now  approve  or  reject  the  selection  of  chiefs  if  any  be  selected 
and  when  there  is  a  chief  his  power  is  nominal.  No  matter 
who  selects  or  approved  him.  The  constant  hunt  for  the  mere 
necessities  of  life  by  the  Indians  has  removed  the  old  sense  of 
dependence  on  the  chief. 

The  following  are  the  grades  given  by  Mr.  Catlin : 

1.  War  chief  the  first  man  of  the  Nation.     The  first  to 
whom  the  pipe  is  handed  on  all  occasions  even  in  Councils  or 
treaties.     The  man  who  leads  in  battle  is  first  in  war,  speaks 
first  in  councils  of  war  and  second  in  peace  councils  or  treaties. 

2.  Civil   Chief,   the   head   man  of  the   Nation   except  in 
times  of  war,  speaks  first  and  smokes  second  in  peace  coun 
cils  is  chief  orator  of  the  Nation. 

3.  Warrior,  a  man  who  is  not  chief,  but  has  been  on  war 
parties  and  holds  himself  ready  at  all  times  for  war. 

4.  Braves,  young  men  not  distinguished  as  warriors,  but 
known  and  admitted  to  be  courageous,  who  stays  at  home  to 
protect  their  homes  and  firesides. 

As  our  Anglo  Saxon  ancestors  moved  across  the  continent 
from  the  East  to  the  West  he  met  several  types  of  Indians, 
Indians  living  upon  cultivated  corn  and  vegetables,  wild 
grains,  fruits  and  roots,  flesh  eaters,  root  diggers  and  fish 
eaters.  Every  where  he  found  the  Indian  conforming  through 
necessity  to  his  surroundings  taking  advantage  of  the  situation 
and  ingenious  with  the  elements  around  him.  The  highest 
intelligence  was  found  among  the  Indians  of  the  Atlantic  Coast 
and  East  of  the  Ohio  River.  This  intelligence  gradually  de 
creasing  until  the  most  squalid  Indians  was  found,  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  to  the  Pacific  Coast  and  Northward 
in  regions  where  the  natural  resources  \vere  limited.  Peaceful 
at  the  advent  of  the  whites  then  hostile  the  Indians  became 
more  wild  and  savage  as  our  ancestors  moved  Westward. 
This  fierceness  being  aggravated  by  the  advancing  lines  of 
Anglo  Saxon  civilization.  The  Aboriginal  American  Indian 
furnished  a  theme  for  poet,  historian  and  novelist.  Coopers 
novels  delightful  and  heroic  with  other  Indian  romances  have 
produced  in  the  American  mind  a  belief  in  a  higher  type  of 
Indian  than  ever  existed.  So  with  all  romance  of  Indian  type. 
The  high  type  demanded  by  false  types  in  literature  and  poetry 
has  worked  gross  injustice  to  the  present  North  American 
Indian.  It  has  created  in  the  popular  mind  in  sections  where 
he  is  not  actually  known  a  false  impression  of  his  capacity,  his 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

manhood  and  his  fitness  for  the  demands  for  Anglo  Saxon  life. 
In  fact  by  reason  of  this  false  teachings  we  expect  too  much 
of  him.  He  has  been  placed  upon  a  high  pedestal  in  literature 
story  and  song  and  at  distances  like  the  great  statue  he  shows 
neither  defect  nor  lack  of  symmetry.  On  close  inspection  the 
present  Indian  clearly  indicates  a  great  decadence  from  his 
reputed  ancestors  and  convicts  of  exaggeration,  many  of  the 
writers  contemporaneous  with  his  forefathers. 

As  a  rule  the  reservation  Indian  did  not  change  unless 
compelled  by  necessity  or  force.  Outside  surroundings  do  not 
effect  him  as  they  do  other  people.  He  welcomes  death,  but 
resists  the  tendered  civilization.  Indian  life  from  his  point  of 
view  is  perfect  and  always  has  been.  The  continent  was  his 
and  he  an  uncontrolled  child  of  nature,  the  perfection  of  a  wild 
man,  he  roamed  over  it  without  restraint.  In  early  days  he 
received  hospitably  the  few  whites  who  visited  him.  Prior  to 
the  advent  of  the  whites  the  dugout  canoe  was  his  conveyance. 
The  Spaniards  brought  the  horse  to  America.  Some  of  the 
horses  escaped  in  the  South  and  run  wild  in  bands.  The 
Indians  soon  captured  and  adopted  them  and  so  after  awhile 
the  canoe  was  partially  abandoned,  and  as  a  result  the  roam 
ing  plains  Indians  followed.  In  time  the  pony  became  the 
Indians  inseparable  companion.  The  interior  of  the  country 
was  thus  easily  explored.  The  plains  where  the  horse  was 
found  running  wild  became  of  value  to  the  tribe  having  con 
trol  of  the  vast  stretches  as  a  horse  producing  grounds  and 
almost  incessant  war  was  the  result.  But  if  tradition  is  to  be 
believed  war  was  the  normal  condition  of  the  Indians  of  North 
America.  The  horse  enabling  the  Indian  to  follow  the  bufffalo 
for  food  and  cloths  and  the  claiming  of  the  lands  by  the  differ 
ent  tribes,  encourages  his  nomadic  habits  and  paved  the  way 
for  his  continued  unsettled  life. 

The  buffalo  range  were  the  batlefields  where  the  Southern 
Commanche  fought  the  Northern  Sioux,  and  the  Pawnee  and 
the  Cheyenne  met  in  deadly  conflict.  The  wandering  habits  of 
many  tribes  and  their  varied  manners  and  customs  may  ac 
count  for  the  great  number  of  tribal  languages.  Permanent 
and  isolated  tribal  settlements  also  aided  the  growth  of  dis 
tinct  speech.  Then  the  ideal  Indian  life  existed.  The  battle 
for  the  necessities  of  life  was  not  a  struggle  as  now,  because 
game  was  abundant  and  people  were  not  so  numerous.  Skins 
and  furs  for  clothing  and  for  making  lodges,  tents  or  tepees 
were  plentiful  and  the  flesh  of  the  fur  animals  was  good  for 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

food.  The  streams  abounded  in  fish  and  the  seasons  brought 
the  unfailing  crops  of  roots  and  nuts.  War,  theft  and  lazi 
ness  in  the  men  were  virtues  and  labor  by  the  woman  a  duty. 
The  workers  in  the  tribes  were  few  and  the  bread  winners 
were  the  decoy,  spear  and  bow  and  arrow.  The  patient  squa\v 
wras  the  stay  of  the  family  being  in  fact  a  beast  of  burden  and 
boath  camp  guard  and  keeper  while  the  males  loafed,  hunted, 
stole  horses,  fished  or  made  war.  Wants  were  few  and  easily 
supplied.  Waste  of  flesh  food  was  then  the  rule.  Still  with 
all  his  carelessness,  the  Indians  had  some  idea  of  economy  in 
killing  of  animals  for  food  as  the  buffalo  herds  or  game  pre 
serves  were  invaded  only  in  season. 

In  illustration  of  Indian  life,  consider  the  conditions  and 
surroundings  of  lake  and  river  Indians  of  the  middle  United 
States.  The  Pottawatomia,  Chippewras,  Ottawas,  Huron, 
Wryandotte,  Miami,  Shawnee  and  Kickapoo  roamed  along  the 
lakes,  rivers  and  streams  of  what  is  now  Ohio,  Indiana,  North 
eastern  Illinois  and  Michigan.  This  was  to  them  an  ideal 
home.  The  water  yielded  fish,  the  trees  shelter  and  fuel,  the 
plains  food  and  cloths.  The  Detroit  River  was  then  a  favorite 
passage  way,  rallying  point  for  the  Northwestern  Indians.  On 
it  the  canoes  came  and  went  and  it  was  an  artery  in  the  system 
of  aboriginal  life.  Game  was  abundant  including  bear,  elk, 
moose,  wolves,  beaver,  otters,  muskrats  and  rabbits,  wild  ber 
ries  were  indigenous.  The  sugar  maple  contributed  to  the 
luxury  of  the  savage  taste.  The  wild  rose  honey  suckle  and 
clematis  made  the  forest  air  fragrant  and  along  the  waterways 
and  lakes  the  lily  waved  its  welcome  of  beauty  in  mirid  blos 
soms.  Night  came  as  a  time  for  rest  and  while  nature  worked 
the  Indian  slept  and  on  the  morrow  as  the  suns  rays  kissed  the 
longing  earth  he  arose  to  a  bountiful  repast  not  created  by 
man. 

The  incoming  of  the  white  man  changed  all  this.  The  first 
sentence  of  the  Latin  tongue  spoken  in  the  Northwest  ordained 
the  death  of  the  Indian.  He  felt  it  and  neither  honeyed  speech, 
tuneful  song  nor  gilded.  Vestment  and  protecting  church 
could  reconcile  him  to  the  foreign  invasion  and  control.  The 
green  wood  echoed  to  the  ax  of  the  settler,  and  the  stalwart 
son  of  the  forest  who  had  walked  through  his  own  posses 
sions  alert  and  erect  as  the  towering  pine  became  of  necessity 
a  stealthy  or  hiding  outcast  in  the  land  of  his  fathers,  and 
crawled-  by  night  amidst  the  groves  where  prior  to  the  advent 
of  whites  he  had  boldly  walked  by  day  as  a  free  man  unchal- 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 


SALT  RIVER  RESERVATION,  PIMA  AGENCY,  ARIZONA. 
Two    Maricopa   men    (sitting)    and   Mojave   man,    in   full   aboriginal   dress. 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

lenged  of  his  tribe.  That  the  North  American  Indian  was  a 
seafaring  man  prior  to  the  advent  of  Europeans  there  is  no 
evidence.  He  was  not  met  at  sea  or  at  a  distance  from  the 
coast.  If  he  originally  came  by  water  across  the  sea  his  de- 
cendants  early  lost  the  trade  of  their  fathers.  The  Indian  vil 
lage  life  the  growth  of  centuries  is  now  partially  perpetuated 
on  the  larger  reservations  and  the  love  of  it  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  Indians  resistance  to  the  wrhite  mans  customs. 
He  does  not  like  to  live  isolated.  The  Latin  and  Anglo  Saxon 
life  which  poured  in  upon  the  Indian  was  to  him  an  invasion. 
The  pale  face  to  him  was  a  robber,  who  despoiled  him  of  his 
lands  and  game  and  so  became  for  all  time  his  enemy.  The 
Indians  first  impression  of  the  white  man  was  not  very  favor 
able  and  to  him  the  white  man  has  not  changed,  except  to  be 
looked  upon  as  more  grasping.  He  found  in  the  first  white 
man  the  same  instincts  of  trade  and  desire  to  oppress  the  lower 
orders  of  men  that  he  finds  now.  The  Indian  squaw  is  the 
tenderest  possible  Mother,  affectionate,  loving  and  even  going 
hungry  for  her  child,  at  the  same  time  she  is  a  fiend  in  war 
with  the  whites  and  is  the  embodiment  of  cruelty  in  her 
methods  of  torturing  the  captives  men,  women  and  children. 

The  ancestors  of  the  Comanches  of  the  early  Texan  days 
were  known  as  Comanches  of  the  Woods,  those  \vho  lived  in 
the  timber.  The  Commanches  of  the  Prairies,  horse  Indians. 

Senator  Sam  Huston  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States 
December  31,  1854,  in  speaking  of  them  said:  There  are  not 
less  than  2000  prisoner  whites  in  the  hands  of  the  Comanches, 
400  in  one  band  in  my  own  state.  They  take  no  prisoners  but 
women  and  boys,  killing  the  men.  The  boys  they  treat  with  a 
degree  of  barbarity  unprecedented,  and  their  cruelties  toward 
the  females  are  nameless  and  atrocious. 

The  war  against  the  Comanches  in  Texas  in  1874-75  was 
the  last  fight  with  them.  The  remnant  have  ever  since  been 
good  Indians-  The  Arizona  territory  was  formed  from  the 
territory  captured  from  Mexico  and  ceded  by  the  treaty  of 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  Feb.  2,  1848,  the  low  portion  of  the  Gad- 
sden  purchase  December  30,  1853.  This  purchase  was  gener 
ally  known  as  Arizona  prior  to  coming  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  United  States.  The  Indian  population  was  in  character 
from  the  earliest  time  1542  about  the  same  as  now  and  prob 
ably  never  could  have  exceeded  40,000  in  number.  The  bar 
renness  of  the  country  and  lack  of  water  precluded  a  large 
population. 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

The  reservation  Indian  population  of  Arizona  in  1890 
was  28,452,  its  non-reservation  Indian  population  1512,  not 
otherwise  enumerated  17,  total  29,981.  Geronimos  band  of 
Apaches,  384  in  numbere,  were  captured  and  deported  in  the 
interest  of  peace  to  Mount  Vernon  barracks  near  Mobile,  Ala 
bama.  The  Pimas  and  Papagos  have  always  been  friends  of 
the  whites,  the  Papagos  claim  to  have  never  killed  a  white 
man.  The  Papagos  have  small  herds  of  stock  including  horses, 
these  constitute  their  substance,  owing  to  scarcity  of  water 
their  flocks  are  not  large.  A  few  years  ago  deer  was  plentiful 
and  the  markets  of  the  whites  were  supplied  with  venison  in 
season  by  the  Indians,  mountain  sheep  and  goats  are  also 
brought  in  by  them.  Black  and  cinnamon  bears  are  killed  oc 
casionally.  The  cotton  tail  rabbit  abounds  and  is  in  demand 
for  the  table.  The  Mountain  Lion  is  found  in  the  hills.  The 
Coyote,  Fox,  Jack  Rabbit  and  Skunk  make  up  the  animals 
found  here. 

The  Navajos  have  inhabited  the  mountains,  plateaus  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico  between  the  San  Juan  and  Little 
Colorado  rivers  ever  since  they  were  discovered.  They  range 
up  in  the  four  corner  country  where  the  four  states  join,  New 
Mexico,  Arizona,  Colorado  and  Utah,  the  wildest  and  least 
known  part  of  the  United  States  today,  the  last  of  the  old  west. 
The  Navajos  have  acquired  many  useful  arts  among  them  spin 
ning  and  weaving.  Their  blankets  woven  in  looms  are  of 
great  excellence  and  bring  from  $25  to  $100.  They  cultivate 
the  soil,  raising  large  quantities  of  corn,  squash  and  melons. 
The  Navajos  are  successful  stock  raisers,  careful  and  patient 
they  guard  their  flock  most  jealously.  The  men  and  boys  look 
after  the  horses  and  the  women  and  girls  as  a  rule  take  care 
of  the  sheep  herds.  As  early  as  1890  the  report  of  the  commis 
sioner  of  Indian  affairs  gives  for  the  Navajo  reservation  8,000 
acres  cultivated  by  Indians,  3,000  families  engaged  in  farming 
and  other  civilized  pursuits,  500  bushels  of  wheat,  100  bushels 
of  oats  and  barley,  30,000  bushels  of  corn,  200  bushels  of  vege 
tables,  250,600  horses  and  mules,  1,000  burros,  6,000  cattle, 
700,000  sheep  and  200,000  goats.  Their  horses  are  small,  the 
typical  Indian  pony.  In  the  corner  of  Utah  they  raise  some 
fine  large  horses,  crosses  from  stock  obtained  from  the  Mor 
mons.  They  delight  in  horse  races. 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 


THE  SIOUX 

Most  people  believe  Sitting-  Bull  was  the  real  chief  of  the 
Sioux  Indians.  This  is  a  mistaken  idea.  He  was  the  Medicine 
Man  and  a  kind  of  prophet.  He  prophesied  the  battle  with  the 
whites  in  1876,  said  his  people  would  be  victorious  and  after 
the  Custer  massacre  he  was  looked  up  to  as  having  super 
human  information,  and  had  quite  a  following'  afterwards. 
Old  Gaul  was  the  war  chief,  it  was  him  that  planned  the  battle 
of  the  Little  Big  Horns,  placed  the  decoy  village  in  the  little 
valley  that  led  Custer  in  where  his  army  was  completely  sur 
rounded  and  annihilated. 

THE  LAST  BATTLE  OF  THE  SIOUX 

Sitting  Bull  was  killed  in  the  battle  at  Wounded  Knee, 
1890,  by  the  Indian  Police,  some  of  his  own  tribe  who  was 
sent  to  his  camp  by  Colonel  Forsyth  of  the  Seventh  United 
States  Cavalry  to  make  peace  in  and  effort  to  get  him  to  re 
turn  to  the  reservation.  He  ordered  his  men  to  fire  on  the 
Police  when  he  was  shot  by  the  Polic,  the  first  man  to  fall, 
and  the  Sioux  last  battle  was  on  December  29,  1890,  resulting 
in  the  loss  of  one  officer  and  twenty-four  men,  the  wounding 
of  three  officers  and  thirty-two  men  and  the  killing  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  and  the  founding  of  thirty-eight 
Sioux. 

THE  SUN  DANCE 

This  barbarous  custom  of  the  Sioux  was  their  acid  test  to 
find  a  warrior  fitted  to  be  War  Chief.  Those  who  joined  the 
dance  were  expected  to  be  ready  to  commence  at  the  rising 
of  the  sun,  having  everything  in  readiness  the  day  before.  One 
end  of  a  rope  was  fastened  to  a  tree,  the  other  end  to  a  post 
about  twenty  feet  distance.  And  all  those  wishing  to  show 
their  bravery  and  test  their  qualifications  for  warriors  did  so 
in  the  following  manner:  They  cut  slits  in  the  skin  on  their 
breasts  at  a  distance  of  two  inches  apart  and  passed  a  strong 
cord  or  a  piece  of  rawhide  through  between  the  flesh  and 
outer  skin,  with  which  they  securely  tied  to  the  rope  that  was 
stretched  from  the  tree  to  the  post.  In  this  manner  they  were 
expected  to  dance  from  sun  to  sun  without  being  liberated 
from  the  rope  to  which  they  were  fastened,  unless  they  could 
release  themselves  by  literally  tearing  loose.  If  they  succeeded 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

in  tearing  the  flesh  and  skin  thus  releasing  themselves,  they 
were  brave  and  worthy  of  a  great  chieftain.  But  if  they  failed 
to  endure  the  torture  or  fainted  as  was  often  the  case,  they 
were  called  Squaw-men  and  under  no  circumstances  could 
they  be  known  as  the  great  warriors  of  the  tribe  until  they 
could  under-go  this  horrible  treatment.  The  great  old  war 
rior  John  Gaul  had  great  scars  on  his  breast,  the  results  from 
that  test.  The  last  dance  they  had  of  this  kind  was  about 
thirty  years  ago.  There  has  been  considerable  change  in  the 
condition  of  these  Indians  since  the  disappearance  of  the 
game.  The  days  when  he  spent  most  of  his  time  in  war 
camps  subsisting  on  Buffalo  meat  only  coming  into  the  agency 
to  destroy  the  flour  that  was  issued  to  him  by  pouring  it  on 
the  ground  and  using  the  bags  for  breech-cloths  are  gone. 
Now  he  is  never  satisfied,  will  take  all  he  can  get.  There  is 
no  hunting  now  and  little  fishing.  Stock  raising  is  more 
profitable  than  farming.  The  most  successful  are  those  that 
have  small  herds  of  cattle  that  run  on  the  wild  grass.  The  old 
way  of  issuing  beef  to  the  Indians  at  the  agencies  was  to  turn 
loose  ten  or  twelve  wild  Texas  steers  at  one  time,  when  a 
band  of  the  young  warriors  would  chase  them,  armed  with 
carbines,  six-shooters  and  all  kinds  of  weapons.  The  cattle 
would  be  shot  down  on  the  dead  run,  they  liked  the  sport  and 
said  it  made  it  better  meat  to  run  them  and  kill  them  hot. 
Most  of  the  old  Sioux  warriors  are  gone — Sitting  Bull,  Rain- 
in-the-face,  Spotted  Tail,  Standing  Bear,  Young  Man  Fraid 
of  His  Horse,  Running  Antelope — are  all  gone  now,  the  rem 
nant  of  what  was  once  the  most  dangerous  tribe  of  Indians 
on  the  American  Continent  are  living  peaceably  on  the  Reser 
vation  Standing  Rock  Agency,  so  called  after  a  rock  that  is 
exhibited  on  a  pedestal  in  front  of  the  agency  ofifce. 

The  history  of  it  is  this :  Several  generations  ago  the  coun 
try  belonged  to  the  Arickarees  from  whom  the  Dakotas  took 
by  force  of  arms.  Two  war  parties  met  near  the  present  site 
of  the  agency.  The  Arickarees  being  the  weaker  were  ob 
liged  to  retreat,  leaving  behind  them  an  old  squaw,  who  re 
fused  positively  to  go  preferring  to  die  in  her  own  country, 
which  would  have  been  the  case  had  she  been  captured.  The 
enemy  approached  intending  to  kill  her  but  what  was  their 
surprise  to  find  the  woman  had  turned  to  stone.  This  stone 
was  for  a  long  time  regarded  with  great  reverence,  it  was 
considered  a  great  medicine.  Now  it  stands  mounted  on  its 
pedestal  in  front  of  the  agency,  a  relic  of  the  past. 

10 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

Over  one  hundred  years  ago  in  a  report  to  the  French 
Academy  written  by  a  competent  investigator,  it  was  stated 
that  the  North  American  Indian  is  an  enigma  <*nd  this  can  in 
truth  be  written  of  him  today.  While  an  enigma,  he  is  of  a 
magnificent  race  physically.  When  we  consider  the  ravages 
of  disease,  intermarriage,  exposeure,  starvation  and  the  white 
mans'  ills,  then  consider  the  number  of  Indians  now  here  as 
against  the  number  at  the  advent  of  the  European  on  this  con 
tinent,  the  Indian  would  seem  to  be  a  startling  example  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest.  War  fits  his  nature — is  his  occupation 
by  design.  Being  the  original  occupant  of  the  land  he  can  not 
see  why  he  should  give  way  and  move  to  parts  unknown.  He 
can  not  see  the  profit  to  come  to  him  from  his  being  despoiled 
first  and  absorbed  afterwards.  Centuries  of  living  by  roaming 
warfare  and  the  consuming  of  the  wild  products  of  nature 
have  not  fitted  him  for  readily  accepting  Anglo  Saxon  civiliza 
tion. 

The  Indians  battle  has  been  for  the  control  of  the  heart  of 
a  Continent  with  few  exceptions,  he  does  not  realize  the  neces 
sity  for  change.  It  was  bred  in  his  bone,  that  labor  is  dis 
honorable  and  the  demands  and  requirements  of  civilized  life 
foretold  to  him  the  end  of  the  old  Indian  life,  and  the  curling 
smoke  from  the  settlers  cabin,  the  doom  of  his  unrestrained 
liberty. 

Moral  training  as  we  know,  he  never  knew,  and  many  of 
them  do  not  know  to  this  day.  His  method  of  warfare,  fierce 
and  brutal  was  born  in  him,  he  met  force  with  force,  reason 
with  the  knife  and  logic  with  his  club.  The  first  tender  of 
our  advancing  civilization  he  met  with  surprise,  and  then  re 
sistance,  and  for  three  hundred  years  warfare  followed.  In 
most  of  the  pioneer  movements  to  the  West  the  crack  of  the 
rifle  was  heard  where  the  glitter  of  the  hoe  was  seen. 

As  the  Indian  felt  the  presence  and  weignt  of  the  new 
civilization  all  of  his  past  history  and  present  life  crowded 
upon  him  and  he  revolted  because  he  could  see  that  his  race 
was  about  to  be  covered  by  a  cloud  that  would  eventually  en 
gulf  it.  The  white  men's  clutch  was  at  his  throat  with  the 
advancing  lines  of  the  white  men  it  took  no  prophet  to  foretell 
the  Indians  doom.  With  clenched  teeth  and  club  or  gun  in 
hand  he  placed  his  back  to  the  rock  and  dies  in  resistance. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  present  area  of  the  United 
States  since  the  white  man  came  has  contained  more  than 
500,000  Indians.  High  estimates  were  made  in  early  days  but 

11 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

the  average  even  then  was  about  1,000,000.  In  1890  we  had 
248,253  civilized  and  uncivilized  Indians.  Through  four  cen 
turies  warlike  bands  resisted  and  many  resist  progress  today. 
How  defiantly  they  met  death.  They  died  silently  without  a 
groan  amid  the  shouts  of  murdered  white  men  and  women  and 
butchered  children,  the  roar  of  the  cannon  and  the  crack  of  the 
rifle. 

Over  the  old  hunting  grounds  across  the  silvery  streams 
which  tread  the  brown  barrens  and  plains  up  the  tall  moun 
tains  among  the  towering  pines  to  the  snow  capped -and  sun 
touched  summits  in  the  land  once  the  home  of  his  people,  the 
Indians  of  today  can  cast  only  a  longing  eye  and  reflect.  The 
plains  are  silent  to  the  tread  of  the  old  Indian  host.  No  monu 
ments  or  structures  tell  their  story,  no  footprints  in  the  rocks, 
no  piles  of  carved  or  sculptured  stone  to  speak  of  their  patience, 
ingenuity  or  their  presence.  The  streams  run  as  of  yore,  but 
while  softly  creeping  to  the  sea,  they  sing  no  song  and  speak 
no  word  of  the  olden  times.  The  nodding  pine  and  ash  along 
the  mountain  side  bend  and  bow  a  welcome  to  the  newcomer, 
but  are  silent  as  to  the  past.  The  canyon  and  mountain  recess 
shelter  as  of  old  but  speak  not.  For  the  remaining  Indian 
the  painter,  the  museum  and  the  art  preservative  alone  can 
tell  the  story,  even  nature,  the  Indians  God,  is  silent  as  to 
him  and  speaks  not.  Such  has  been  his  life,  such  the  result, 
that  if  the  entire  remaining  Indians  were  completely  wiped 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  they  would  leave  no  monuments,  no 
buildings,  no  written  language  save  one,  no  literature,  no  in 
ventions,  nothing  in  arts  or  sciences,  absolutely  nothing  for 
the  benefit  of  mankind.  A  few  graves  and  unimportant  ruins 
met  the  gaze  of  the  white  man  four  hundred  years  ago.  The 
past  of  the  Indian  was  sealed  even  then  and  apparently  to  the 
Indian  as  well  as  to  the  white  man.  And  this  condition  re 
mains  to  this  time,  all  of  the  Indian  past  is  now  reflection.  Old 
squaws  and  tottering  old  men  on  the  remaining  reservations 
in  most  cases  in  squalor,  rags  and  hunger,  retell  the  fierce 
batles  of  their  people,  each  tale  exaggerated  with  age,  every 
one  mentioned  a  hero,  all  now  legend  and  myth.  These  past 
Indian  glories  can  never  come  again  but  the  Indian  does  not 
realize  it,  and  so  he  ivokes  their  return  with  his  ghost  or  mes- 
siah  dance. 


12 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 


CHEYENNE  AND  ARAPHO  AGENCY,  OKLAHOMA 

BRIBE  THAT  LED  TO  SEMINOLE  WAR 

Osceola,  "the  Tiger  of  the  Everglades,"  was  in  prison. 
And  all  Florida  rejoiced.  The  half-breed  Indian  had  long  been 
a  storm  center,  and  while  he,  had  been  at  large  there  was  no 
hope  for  lasting  peace.  From  the  age  of  fourteen,  Oceola  had 
been  a  war  chief  of  the  Seminoles — the  crafty  and  bloodthirsty 
Indian  "nation"  that  made  its  liar  in  the  impenetrable  Ever 
glade  swamps  and  issued  forth  from  time  to  time  to  carry 
flame  and  death  to  settlers.  When  Uncle  Sam  wanted  to  ship 
the  Seminoles  to  a  Western  reservation  and  to  take  over  their 
Florida  lands,  Oscealo  flew  into  a  rage  and  bellowed  his  re 
fusal  of  the  plan,  even  driving  his  knife  through  the  proffered 
treaty.  Soon  after  this  Osceola  was  caught  and  jailed.  With 
out  his  fiery  leadership  the  Seminoles  were  helpless.  And  the 
region  grew  safe  and  prosperous.  But  Osceola  had  no  inten 
tion  of  staying  in  prison.  According  to  one  story  he  offered 
to  sign  away  the  lands  of  his  ancestors  to  the  government  in 
return  for  his  freedom.  Then,  when  force  and  guil  failed  to 
release  him,  he  fell  to  studying  the  characters  of  the  soldiers 
who  guarded  him.  At  length  he  found  the  man  he  sought.  He 
offered  the  soldier  a  rich  bribe  to  help  him  escape.  The  soldier 
accepted  the  bribe.  Osceola,  freed  from  prison,  hurried  from 
place  to  place  with  incredible  speed,  gathering  together  the 
scattered  Seminole  bands.  Soon  he  was  ready  to  strike  the 
first  blow.  One  day,  early  in  1836,  he  sent  80  of  hsi  warriors 
to  waylay  Major  Dade,  who  was  marching  at  the  head  of  a 
body  of  United  States  troops  along  the  military  road  near 
Tampa  Bay.  The  Indians  ambushed  Dade's  men  and  slew 

13 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

108  of  them.  At  the  same  time  another  detachment,  led  by 
Oscealo,  ravaged  and  burned  the  settlement  at  Fort  King, 
killing  the  Indian  agent  (against  whom  the  chief  had  sworn 
revenge  for  putting  him  in  prison)  and  many  others.  In  a 
dozen  places  throughout  Florida  Osceola  struck  with  the  swift 
ness  and  deadliness  of  an  Everglade  rattlesnake,  inflicting  fear 
ful  damage  and  getting  safely  out  of  reach  before  punishment 
could  follow. 

General  Clinch,  with  1,000  regulars,  blundered  upon  a 
much  smaller  force  of  Indians  under  Osceola  at  the  ford  of 
the  Withlacoockee  river.  The  United  States  troops,  in  the 
battle  that  followed,  sustained  fearful  loss.  Osceola  boasted 
later  that  in  this  fight  he  himself  killed  no  less  than  forty 
-white  men.  When  the  Seminoles'  ammunition  was  gone  they 
hurled  themselves  bodily  upon  the  soldiers  with  knives  and 
clubbed  guns.  Battle  after  battle  followed,  until,  in  General 
Taylor,  Osceola  found  a  foe  who  outgeneraled  him.  In  the 
final  and  greatest  battle  of  the  Seminole  war,  Osceola  made  a 
gallant  stand.  The  waters  of  the  nearby  river  ran  blood  red 
for  days  thereafter.  The  Seminoles  were  routed  and  scattered 
in  panic  flight.  This  time  there  was  no  leader  to  rally  them 
again  and  inspire  them  to  continue  war.  For  the  government 
authorities  had  invited  Osceola  to  a  conference,  pledging  their 
honor  that  he  would  not  be  molested.  He  accepted  the  invita 
tion,  and,  the  moment  he  was  inside  the  fort  where  the  con 
ference  was  to  be  held,  he  was  seized,  fettered  and  hustled  off 
to  St.  Augustine.  Thence  Osceola  was  sent  in  1837  to  the 
military  prison  at  Charleston  harbor.  Realizing  that  here  he 
could  have  no  hope  of  escape,  he  went  on  a  "hunger  strike" 
and  died. 

LITTLE  CAUSES  THAT  HAVE   LED  TO   BIG  WARS 

One  Soldier's  Folly  That  Led  to  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

Black  Hawk — Makataime — Shekiakiak — cross  the  Missis 
sippi,  from  his  tribe's  reservatin,  in  1831.  With  him  were 
some  of  his  Sac  tribesmen.  Their  errand  was  peaceful.  To 
use  Black  Hawk's  own  words,  they  were  going  to  "steal  their 
own  corn."  In  other  words,  to  plant  a  crop  on  some  rich  and 
unoccupied  land  that  had  once  been  theirs  and  had  been  taken 
over  by  the  government.  Their  present  reservation  was  nearly 
barren,  and  the  extra  crop  was  sorely  neded  to  avert  famine. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  the  band  had  any  warlike  inten 
tion.  But  their  presence  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Mississippi 

14 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

was  made  known  to  the  local  army  commander,  General  Atkin 
son,  who  ordered  them  back.  Black  Hawk  explained  that  his 
errand  was  peaceful  and  that  he  and  his  men  would  go  home 
as  soon  as  the  corn  planting  was  finished.  A  battalion  of  mili 
tia  was  at  once  sent  to  enforce  the  General's  command.  Black 
Hawk,  who  was  camped  in  a  forest,  supposed  that  the  troops 
had  not  understood  his  explanation  and  sent  a  messenger, 
under  flag  of  truce,  to  explain  the  situation  all  over  again.  As 
the  flag-of-truce  bearer  with  two  comrades  approached  the 
militia  one  of  the  white  soldiers  lost  his  head  at  sight  of  three 
real  live  Indians  and  snatched  up  a  musket.  Before  any  at 
tempt  could  be  made  to  stop  him  the  militiaman  fired  on  the 
flag  of  truce.  The  Indian  who  carried  the  flag  dropped  dead. 
And  this  wantonly  idiotic  shooting  caused  the  famous  "Black 
Hawk  War."  Black  Hawk,  on  learning  that  his  messenger 
was  shot,  gathered  forty  braves  around  him  and  hid  in  a 
tangled  thicket.  As  the  militiamen — 270  in  number  ap 
proached,  they  were  met  by  a  blaze  of  gunfire  and  a  deafening 
chorus  of  war-whoops.  The  soldiers  turned  and  fled.  Two 
hundred  and  seventy  United  States  militiamen  put  to  utter 
rout  by  forty  ill-armed  Indians !  Nor  did  most  of  the  soldiers 
pause  in  their  panic  retreat  until  they  reached  Dixon's  Ferry, 
fully  thirty  miles  away  from  the  scene  of  their  disgrace. 

The  war  was  on.  The  refugees  announced  that  they  had 
been  "ambushed  by  2,000  blood-thirsty  savages."  And  their 
story  was  believed  until  it  was  proven  that  the  Indians  had 
numbered  barely  forty,  and  that  only  fifteen  of  these  had  given 
chase  to  the  fleeing  270. 

General  Winfield  Scott,  with  1,000  regular  troops,  marched 
against  the  Sacs.  His  little  army  was  reinforced  by  militia 
and  frontiersmen.  Among  the  militia  volunteers  was  a  lanky, 
gigantic,  young  country  lawyer — Abraham  Lincoln  by  name. 
Black  Hawk  by  this  time  had  been  joined  by  his  full  fighting 
force  and  by  war  parties  from  allied  tribes.  His  band  num 
bered  about  500,  against  more  than  2,000  white  foes.  There 
were  the  usual  raids  and  wholesale  murders  and  skirmishes 
common  to  Indian  warfare  and  several  pitched  batles.  Black 
Hawk  sent  to  the  General  in  command  the  following  message : 

''Black  Hawk  would  have  been  a  friend  of  the  whites,  but 
they  would  not  let  him.  The  hatchet  was  dug  up  by  them  and 
not  by  the  Indians.  Black  Hawk  meant  no  harm  to  the  pale- 
faqes  when  he  came  across  the  Mississippi,  but  came  peace 
ably  to  plant  corn  for  his  starving  women  and  children.  Even 

15 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

then  he  would  have  gone  back,  but  when  he  sent  his  white 
flag  the  brave  who  carried  it  was  inhumanly  shot.  Black 
Hawk  will  have  revenge,  and  he  will  never  stop  until  the  Great 
Spirit  shall  say  to  him  'come  away' !"  But  at  length,  his  band 
cut  to  pieces,  while  constant  reinforcements  swelled  the  ranks 
of  his  enemies,  Black  Hawk  was  forced  to  surrender.  The  of 
ficer  in  charge  of  the  detachment  that  escorted  the  beaten  chief 
to  St.  Louis  and  to  prison  there  was  a  young  army  lieutenant, 
Jefferson  Davis,  son-in-law  of  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor,  who 
had  fought  so  gallantly  throughout  the  campaign.  In  the  brief 
Black  Hawk  War,  oddly  enough,  were  four  soldiers,  three  of 
whom  later  were  Presidents  and  a  fourth  a  Presidential  candi 
date.  They  were  Lincoln,  Taylor,  Davis  and  Scott. 

A  SQUAW'S  ILLNESS  THAT  STARTED  OUR 
NEZ  PERCE  WAR 

This  is  the  story  of  an  Indian  Napoleon.  His  people  called 
him  Himmaton-Yalatkit,  war  chief  of  the  Choppunnish  nation. 
History  knows  him  as  Chief  Joseph  of  the  Nez  Perces.  The 
Choppunnish  were  nicknamed  Nez  Perces  (pierced  noses)  by 
some  early  French  pioneers  because  of  their  custom  of  wearing 
nose  rings.  They  were  probably  the  best,  most  intelligent 
body  of  Indians  in  America.  Under  their  leader,  christened 
"Joseph"  at  a  local  mission,  they  lived  contentedly  on  a  north 
western  reservation  biger  than  New  York  State.  Then  the 
old  tragic  story  of  settler-and-savage  was  retold. 

The  white  men,  drifting  westward,  invaded  the  reserva 
tion,  found  it  rich  and  full  of  promise  for  them,  and  forthwith 
pulled  wires  at  Washington  to  have  the  Indians  kicked  out. 
As  usual,  the  plan  was  successful.  The  Nez  Perces  were 
ordered  to  move  to  a  smaller,  much  less  desirable  reservation' 
far  away  from  the  homes  they  loved.  To  add  to  their  griev 
ances  they  were  abused,  robbed  right  and  left  and  treated  like 
dogs  by  many  of  the  white  settlers.  The  Nez  Perces  were 
furious.  They  clamored  to  go  on  the  warpath,  to  fight  to  the 
death  for  their  homes  and  their  rights.  Wise  old  Chief  Joseph, 
however,  held  them  in  check.  His  power  over  them  was  ab 
solute — so  long  as  he  was  on  hand  to  enforce  that  power. 
General  O.  O.  Howard  was  sent  to  persuade  the  chief  to  con 
sent  to  the  change  of  reservations.  Joseph  listened  gravely 
to  the  General's  spurious  arguments,  hearing  him  to  the  end. 
Then,  when  Howard  paused,  the  chief  inquired: 

16 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

"If  we  consent  to  be  herded  on  that  little  strip  of  land 
what  will  the  Great  Father  at  Washington  give  us?  Will  he 
give  us  schools,  teachers,  houses,  gardens,  farm  tools?" 

"Yes,  yes !"  replied  the  delighted  General,  "you  will  have 
all  of  those  things." 

"Well,"  drawled  the  chief,  "those  are  just  the  things  we 
do  not  want.  The  earth  is  our  dear  mother.  Do  you  think  we 
wish  to  break  it  and  dig  it  up?" 

At  this  crisis  of  the  trouble,  in  1873,  Chief  Joseph's  wife, 
who  was  far  away  upon  a  visit,  fell  dangerously  ill.  The  chief 
dropped  everything  and  hastened  to  her.  While  Joseph  was 
away  two  of  his  braves  chanced  to  fall  into  talk  with  two  farm 
ers.  One  of  the  Indians  laid  his  hand,  inquisitively,  on  the 
brand-new  rifle  of  one  of  the  farmers.  The  other  farmer,  per 
haps  mistaking  the  meaning  of  the  gesture,  shot  the  Indian 
dead.  That  started  the  outbreak.  Joseph  was  not  there  to 
calm  his  tribesmen  and  to  demand  regular  justice  against  the 
murderer.  His  fellowers  took  the  law  into  their  own  hands. 
Border  warfare,  with  all  its  horrors  of  burning,  theft  and  mas 
sacre,  burst  forth.  The  chief,  hurrying  to  the  scene  of  strife, 
found  himself  too  late  to  stem  the  tied  of  slaughter. 

Only  one  course,  as  he  saw  it,  remained  for  him  to  fol 
low.  He  threw  in  his  lot  with  his  people.  The  great  Nez 
Perces  war  was  on !  For  months  the  conflict  blazed  along  the 
frontier.  In  battle  after  battle  Joseph's  military  genius  caused 
the  rout  of  the  government  troops.  He  out-generaled  the  best 
officers  sent  against  him  and  defeated  regulars  and  militia 
alike,  with  fearful  loss.  Up  to  this  time  the  Nez  Perces  had, 
from  earliest  days,  been  the  friends  of  the  white  man.  Now, 
owing  to  Joseph's  generalship,  they  were  proving  the  most 
dangerous  Indian  foes  our  government  had  ever  faced.  At 
last,  overwhelmed  by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  Chief  Joseph 
ordered  a  rerteat.  He  hoped  to  transport  his  people  bodily 
across  the  Canadian  border,  where  they  would  be  safe  from 
pursuit.  This  retreat  has  been  called  one  of  history's  most 
brilliant  feats  of  strategy.  His  men  and  horses,  tired,  his 
march  impeded  by  the  wounded  and  by  the  tribe's  women  and 
children,  Joseph  set  out  for  Canada.  In  front  of  him,  barring 
his  way,  was  a  strong  force  under  General  Miles.  Close  be 
hind  him  a  second  body  of  troops  under  General  Howard. 
Colonel  Sturgis'  soldiers  were  at  his  flank.  He  was  com 
pletely  hemmed  in.  In  spite  of  these  incredible  odds,  Joseph 
and  his  entire  band  slipped  through  the  pursuer's  hands  again 

17 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

and  again  ;  traveling  nearly  1,400  miles  in  round-about  dodging, 
and  being  headed  off  at  last  and  forced  to  surrender  when  they 
were  less  than  fifty  miles  from  the  Canadian  border  line.  As 
it  was,  Joseph  surrendered  only  on  receiving  certain  promises 
of  good  treatment  for  his  people.  As  soon  as  he  was  in  the 
power  of  his  enemies  these  promises  were  broken  by  the  con 
querors,  and  he  and  his  gallant  band  were  ignominiously 
hustled  off  to  Fort  Leavenworth,  Kansas. 

Since  the  advent  of  the  white  man  in  the  United  States 
there  have  been  almost  constant  wars  between  them  and  the 
Indians  up  until  1895.  Beginning  on  the  Pacific  side  in  1539 
and  on  the  Atlantic  after  1600. 

These  wars  and  outbreaks  arose  from  various  causes  from 
the  resistance  by  the  Indian  to  the  white  man's  occupation  of 
his  lands  from  the  Indians  murderous  disposition  from  national 
neglect  and  failure  to  keep  treaties  and  solemn  promises. 

We  have  an  estimated  cost  of  the  Indians  to  the  United 
States  from  July  4,  1776  to  June  30,  1890.  1,067,017,740.69 
dollars  aside  from  the  amounts  reimbursed  to  states  for  their 
expenses  in  wars  with  Indians  and  aside  from  pensions. 

With  the  capture  of  Chief  Joseph  of  the  Nez  Perces  in  the 
Modoc  war  in  1873,  passed  the  last  great  Indian  Chief. 

Such  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  Red  Man  who  was.  The  only 
hope  of  the  perpetuity  of  his  race  seems  now  to  center  in  the 
Choctaws,  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Seminoles  and  Chickasaws  of 
Oklahoma  numbering  about  fifty  thousand  souls  and  have  at 
tained  a  considerable  degree  of  civilization.  Since  the  discov 
ery  of  oil  on  their  lands  many  of  them  are  living  in  luxury  with 
fine  homes,  automobiles  and  everything  necessary  to  happiness 
and  contentment  in  a  land  of  plenty.  Most  of  the  other  tribes 
are  rapidly  approaching  extinction.  Right  or  wrong  such  is 
the  logic  of  events.  Whether  the  Red  Man  has  been  justly  de 
prived  of  the  ownership  of  the  New  World,  will  remain  a 
subject  of  debate,  that  he  has  been  deprived,  can  be  none. 
The  Saxon  has  come.  His  conquering  foot  has  trodden  the 
vast  domain  from  shore  to  shore.  The  weaker  race  has  with 
ered  from  his  presence.  By  the  majestic  rivers  and  in  the 
depths  of  the  solitary  wood,  the  feeble  sons  of  the  bow  and 
arrow  will  be  seen  no  more.  Only  their  names  remain  on  hill 
and  streams  and  mountains.  The  Red  Man  sinks  and  fails. 
His  eyes  are  to  the  West.  To  the  prairies  and  forests,  the 
hunting  grounds  of  his  ancestors.  He  says  "Farewell."  He 
is  gone.  The  cypress  and  the  hemlock  sing  his  requiem. 

18 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 


LOWER  BRULE  RESERVATION,  CROW  CREEK  AND  LOWER  BRULE  AGENCY, 

SOUTH    DAKOTA 
Iron     Nation,     Chief     of     Lower     Brule     Sioux. 


19 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

Overlooking  the  peaceful  Pacific  at  San  Francisco  is  the 
life  size  figure  of  an  Indian  astride  of  his  bare-backed  pony, 
looking  to  the  West,  representing  the  Indian  at  the  end  of  the 
Trail.  To  which  the  following  lines  were  dedicated  by  one  of 
the  tribe. 

I  am  dreaming  now  of  the  times  that  are  past, 
And  straining  my  heart  strings  to  give  a  solution, 
Of  why  could  not  those  joyful  days  everlast, 
Oh,  changeable  world  is  it  called  evolution. 

My  prairie  home  old  old  was  teeming, 
With  millions  of  buffalo  our  raiment  and  food. 
And  yet  in  our  innocence  we  never  saw  gleaming, 
The  change  that  was  coming  that  left  us  so  nude. 

How  well  I  remember  the  young  braves  would  assemble, 
All  mounted  with  bows  strung  taut  for  the  chase, 
With  a  roaring  sound  the  grand  prairie  would  tremble, 
Re-echo  the  joys  from  the  pride  of  our  race. 

The  pale-face  has  come  arid  brought  civilization; 
He  slaughtered  our  buffalo.    Oh,  shame  and  disgrace, 
They  call  it  rudiments  of  building  a  nation, 
By  taking  from  nature  and  stranding  a  race. 

Why  should  I,  in  sorrow  and  sadness  bewail 
The  things  that  were  in  the  zone  of  the  blessed ; 
Since  now  we  are  nearing  the  end  of  the  trail, 
And  our  sun  is  now  setting  in  the  land  of  the  West. 

Then  need  we  fear  that  time  will  erase  it, 

In  the  midst  of  time  will  memory  fail? 

Or  will  those  that  are  coming  in  reverence  caress  it, 

The  emblem  that  stands  by  the  "End  of  the  Trail." 


The  Osages  are  the  wealthiest  tribe  of  Indians  in  the 
United  States,  or  the  world.  Protecting  the  government's 
wards  from  swindlers  is  one  of  the  biggest  tasks  of  the  Indian 
service. 


20 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

Formerly,  great  numbers  of  crooked  whites  attempted  to 
marry  into  the  tribe  to  get  the  advantage  of  some  squaw's  easy 
income,  but  closing  the  tribal  rolls  several  years  ago  put  an 
end  to  this. 

The  joke  about  the  Osage  wealth  is  that  back  in  1883,  the 
white  people,  wanting  the  Indians'  rich  agricultural  lands  in 
Kansas,  practically  forced  them  down  to  a  barren  and  rocky 
strip  of  land  in  Oklahoma. 

The  richest  oil  field  in  the  world  was  discovered  on  that 
land  and  now  it  probably  produces  more  every  year  than  the 
same  area  of  Kansas  wheat  land  will  produce  in  a  lifetime. 

Indian  tribal  funds  now  held  by  the  government  are  close 
to  $25,000,000  and  there  is  approximately  $30,000,000  deposited 
to  the  credit  of  individual  Indians  in  various  banks. 

The  number  of  Indians  in  this  country  has  increased  12,500 
in  the  past  ten  years,  and  now  is  close  to  340,000.  Government 
experts  attribute  this  increase  to  better  living  conditions. 


21 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 


BRIEF  HISTORY  OF  THE  BUFFALO 

The  discovery  of  the  American  Bison  as  first  made  by 
Europeans  occurred  in  the  menagerie  of  a  heathen  King. 

In  the  year  1512  Cortez  reached  Anahuac,  the  American 
Bison  was  seen  for  the  first  time  by  civilized  Europeans,  if  we 
may  be  permitted  to  characterize  the  horde  of  blood  thirsty 
plunder  seekers  who  fought  their  .way  to  the  Aztec  Capitol 
With  a  degree  of  enterprise  that  marked  him  as  an  enlightened 
Monarch,  Montezuma  maintained  for  the  instruction  for  his 
people  a  well  appointed  menagerie  of  which  the  historian  De- 
Solis  wrote  as  follows  in  1724:  In  the  second  square  of  the 
same  house  where  the  wild  beasts  which  were  either  presents 
of  Montezuma  or  taken  by  his  hunters,  in  strong  cages  of  tim 
ber  ranged  in  good  order  and  under  cover.  Lions,  tigers  and 
all  others  of  the  savage  kind  which  New  Spain  produced, 
among  which  the  greatest  rarity  was  the  Mexican  Bull,  a  won 
derful  composition  of  divers  animals.  It  has  crooked  shoulders 
with  a  bunch  on  its  back  like  a  camel,  its  flankes  dry,  its  tail 
large  and  its  neck  covered  with  hair  like  a  lion.  It  is  cloven 
footed,  its  head  armed  like  that  of  a  bull  which  it  resembles 
in  fierceness  with  no  less  strength  and  agility. 

Thus  was  the  first  Buffalo  seen  in  America  by  Europeans 
described.  The  nearest  locality  from  whence  it  could  have 
come  wras  the  State  of  Coahuila  in  Northern  Mexico  between 
400  and  500  miles  away,  and  at  that  time  vehicles  were  un 
known  to  the  Aztecs.  But  for  the  destruction  of  the  whole 
mass  of  written  literature  of  the  Axtecs  by  the  priests  of  the 
Spanish  Conquest,  wre  might  now  be  revealing  in  historical 
accounts  of  the  Bison  which  would  make  the  oldest  of  our 
present  records  seem  of  comparatively  recent  date. 

Nine  years  after  the  event  referred  to  above  or  in  1530 
another  Spanish  explorer,  Alvar  Nunez  Cabeza,  afterwards 
called  Cabeza  de  Vaca  or  in  our  language  Cattle  Cabeza,  the 
prototype  of  our  own  distinguished  Buffalo  Bill  was  wrecked 
on  the  Gulf  Coast  west  of  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  from 
whence  he  wandered  Westward  through  what  is  now  the  State 
of  Texas,  he  discovered  the  American  Bison  on  his  native 
heath.  So  far  as  can  be  ascertained  this  was  the  earliest  dis 
covery  of  the  American  Bison  in  a  wild  state  and  the  descrip 
tion  of  the  species  as  recorded  by  the  explorer  is  of  historical 
interest.  It  is  brief  and  superficial. 

22 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

The  unfortunate  Explorer  took  very  little  interest  in 
animated  nature  except  as  it  contributed  to  the  sum  of  his 
daily  food  which  was  then  the  all  important  subject  of  his 
thoughts.  He  almost  starved.  This  is  all  he  had  to  say: 
Cattle  come  as  far  as  this,  I  have  seen  them  three  times  and 
eaten  of  their  meat.  I  think  they  are  about  the  size  of  those 
in  Spain.  They  have  small  horns  like  those  of  Morocco  and 
the  hair  long  and  flocky  like  that  of  the  Merino.  Some  are 
light  brown  pardillas  and  others  black.  To  my  judgment  the 
flesh  is  finer  and  sweeter  than  that  of  this  country  (Spain). 
The  Indians  make  blankets  of  those  that  are  not  full  grown 
and  of  the  larger  they  make  shoes  and  bucklers.  They  come 
as  far  as  the  sea  coast  of  Florida  (now  Texas)  and  in  a  direc 
tion  from  the  North  and  range  over  a  district  of  more  than 
400  leagues.  In  the  whole  extent  of  the  plain  over  which  they 
roam  the  people  who  live  bordering  upon  it  descend  and  kill 
them  for  food  and  thus  a  great  many  skins  are  scattered 
throughout  the  country. 

Coronado  was  the  next  explorer  who  penetrated  the  coun 
try  of  the  Buffalo,  which  he  accomplished  from  the  West  by 
way  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  He  crossed  the  southern 
part  of  the  Panhandle  of  Texas  to  the  edge  of  what  was  after 
wards  the  Indian  Territory,  and  returned  through  the  same 
region.  It  was  in  the  year  1542  that  he  reached  the  Buffalo 
country  and  traversed  the  plains  that  were  full  of  crooked 
back  oxen  as  the  mountain  Serena  in  Spain  is  of  sheep.  This 
is  the  description  of  the  animal  as  recorded  by  one  of  his  fol 
lowers,  Castaneda,  and  translated  by  W.  W.  Davis.  The  first 
time  we  encountered  the  Buffalo  all  the  horses  took  flight  on 
seeing  them  for  they  are  horrible  to  the  sight.  They  have  a 
broad  and  short  face,  eyes  two  palms  from  each  other  and  pro 
jecting  in  such  a  manner  sideways  they  can  see  a  pursuer. 
Their  beard  is  like  that  of  goats  and  so  long  that  it  drags  the 
ground  when  they  lower  the  head,  they  have  on  the  anterior 
portion  of  the  body  a  frizzled  hair  like  sheep  wool,  it  is  very 
fine  upon  the  croup,  and  sleek  like  a  lions  mane.  Their  horns 
are  fery  short  and  thick  and  can  scarcely  be  seen  through  the 
hair.  They  always  change  their  hair  in  May,  and  at  this  sea 
son  they  really  resemble  lions.  To  make  it  drop  more  quickly 
for  they  change  it  as  adders  do  their  skins,  they  roll  among 
the  brushwood  which  they  find  in  the  ravines.  Their  tail  is 
very  short  and  terminates  in  a  great  tuft,  when  they  run  they 
carry  it  in  the  air  like  scorpions.  When  quite  young  they  are 

23 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

tawny  and  resemble  our  calves  but  as  age  increases  they 
change  color  and  form.  Neither  DeSoto,  Ponce  de  Leon, 
Vasquez  de  Alyllon  nor  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  ever  saw  a 
Buffalo  for  the  reason  that  all  their  exploration  were  made 
South  of  what  was  the  habitat  of  that  animal.  At  the  time 
DeSoto  made  his  great  exploration  from  Florida  Northwest 
ward  to  the  Mississippi  and  into  Arkansas  in  1539-41  he  did 
indeed  pass  through  country  in  Northern  Mississippi  and 
Louisiana  that  was  afterwards  inhabited  by  the  Buffalo,  but 
at  that  time  not  one  was'  to  be  found  there.  Some  of  his 
soldiers,  however,  who  was  sent  into  the  Northern  part  of 
Arkansas  reported  having  seen  Buffalo  skins  in  the  posses 
sion  of  the  Indians  and  were  told  that  live  Buffalo  were  to  be 
found  five  or  six  leagues  North  of  their  farthest  point. 

The  earliest  discovery  of  the  Bison  in  Eastern  North 
America  or  indeed  anywhere  North  of  Coronado's  route,  was 
made  somewhere  near  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  in 
1612,  by  an  English  navigator  named  Samuel  Argoll,  and 
narrated  as  follows : 

As  soon  as  I  had  unladen  this  corne.  I  set  my  men  to  the 
felling  of  timber  for  the  building  of  a  frigat  which  I  had  left 
half  finished  at  Point  Comfort  the  nineteenth  of  March,  and 
returned  myself  with  the  ship  into  Pembrook  (Potomac)  River 
and  so  discovered  at  the  head  of  it  which  is  about  sixty-five 
leagues  into  the  land  and  navigable  for  any  ship  and  then 
marching  into  the  country  I  found  great  store  of  cattle  as  big 
as  kine  of  which  the  Indians  that  were  my  guides  killed  a 
couple,  which  we  found  to  be  very  good  wholesome  meat  and 
are  very  easy  to  be  killed  in  regard  they  are  heavy,  slow  and 
not  so  wild  as  other  beasts  of  the  wilderness. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  narrative  of  the  explorer 
affords  no  clew  to  the  precise  locality  of  this  interesting  discov 
ery,  but  since  it  is  doubtful  that  the  mariner  journeyed  very 
far  on  foot  from  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Potomac  it 
seems  highly  probable  that  the  first  American  Bison  seen  by 
Europeans  other  than  the  Spaniards  was  found  within  fifteen 
miles  or  even  less  of  the  Capitol  of  the  United  States  and  pos 
sibly  within  the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  white  man  with  the  Buffalo  on 
the  Northern  boundry  of  that  animals  habitat  occurred  in  1679 
when  Father  Hennepin  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Great 
Lakes  and  finally  penetrated  the  great  wilderness  as  far  as 
Western  Illinois.  The  next  meeting  with  the  Buffalo  on  the 

24 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

Atlantic  slope  was  in  October,  1729,  by  a  party  of  surveyors 
under  Col.  William  Byrd  who  were  engaged  in  surveying  the 
boundary  between  North  Carolina  and  Virginia.  As  the  party 
journeyed  up  from  the  coast  marking  the  line  which  now  con 
stitutes  the  interstate  boundary,  three  Buffalo  were  seen  on 
Sugar  Tree  Creek  but  none  of  them  were  killed.  On  the  return 
journey  in  November  one  bull  Buffalo  was  killed  on  Sugar 
Tree  Creek  which  is  in  Halifax  county,  Virginia  within  five 
miles  of  Buffalo  Creek  longitude  78  degrees  40  minutes  West 
and  155  miles  from  the  coast.  It  was  found  all  alone  though  the 
Buffalo  seldom  are.  The  meat  is  spoken  of  as  a  rarity  not 
met  with  at  all  on  the  expedition  up.  The  animal  was  found 
in  thick  woods  which  were  thus  described :  The  woods  were 
thick  great  part  of  this  day's  journey  so  that  we  were  forced 
to  scuffle  hard  to  advance  seven  miles  being  equal  in  fatigue 
to  double  that  distance  of  clear  and  open  ground.  One  of  the 
creeks  which  the  party  saw  was  christened  Buffalo  Creek  so 
named  from  the  frequent  tokens  we  discovered  of  that  Ameri 
can  Behemoth. 

In  October,  1733,  an  another  surveying  expedition  of 
Colonel  Byrd's  party  had  the  good  fortune  to  kill  another 
Buffalo  near  Sugar  Tree  Creek  which  incident  is  thus  de 
scribed  : 

We  pursued  our  journey  through  uneven  and  perplexed 
woods  and  in  the  thickest  of  them  had  the  fortune  to  knock 
down  a  young  Buffalo  two  years  old.  Providence  threw  this 
vast  animal  in  our  way,  very  seasonably  just  as  our  provisions 
began  to  fail  us,  and  it  was  the  more  welcome  too  because  it 
was  a  change  of  diet  which  of  all  varieties  next  to  that  of 
bed  fellows,  is  the  most  agreeable.  We  had  lived  upon  venison 
and  bear  till  our  stomachs  loathed  them  almost  as  much  as 
the  Hebrews  of  old  did  their  quails.  Our  butchers  were  so 
unhandy  at  their  business  that  we  grew  very  lank  before  we 
could  get  our  dinner.  But  when  it  came  we  found  it  equal  in 
goodness  to  the  best  beef.  They  made  it  the  longer  because 
they  kept  sucking  the  water  from  the  guts  in  initation  of  the 
Catauba  Indians  upon  the  belief  that  it  is  a  great  cordial  and 
will  even  make  them  drunk  or  at  least  gay.  A  little  later  a 
solitary  bull  Buffalo  was  found  but  spared,  the  earliest  instance 
of  the  kind  on  record. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION 
The  range  of  the  American  Bison  extended  over  about 

25 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

one-third  of  the  entire  continent  of  North  America.  Starting 
almost  at  tide  water  on  the  Atlantic  Coast  it  extended  West 
ward  through  a  vast  tract  of  dense  forest  across  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  system  to  the  prairies  along  the  Mississippi  and 
Southward  to  the  Delta  of  that  great  stream.  Although  the 
great  plains  country  of  the  West  was  the  natural  home  of  the 
Buffalo  where  it  flourished  in  countless  thousands  and  was 
food  and  raiment  for  the  Aboriginal  occupants.  The  Southern 
Comanche,  the  Sioux  Pawnee  and  the  Cheyennes,  the  Nomads 
of  the  plains.  It  also  wandered  Southwest  across  Texas  to  the 
burning  plains  of  Northeastern  Mexico,  Westward  across  the 
mountains  into  New  Mexico,  Utah  and  Idaho  and  Northward 
across  that  vast  treeless  waste  to  the  bleak  and  inhospitable 
shores  of  the  great  slave  lake.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
had  the  Bison  remained  unmolested  by  man  an  uninfluenced 
by  him  he  would  eventually  have  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevadas 
and  taken  up  his  abode  in  the  great  fertile  valleys  of  the 
Pacific  slope.  Had  the  Bison  remained  for  a  few  more  cen 
turies  in  undisturbed  possession  of  his  range  at  liberty  to  roam 
at  will  over  the  North  American  continent,  it  is  almost  certain 
that  several  distinctly  recognizable  varieties  would  have  been 
produced.  The  Buffalo  of  the  hot  regions  of  the  extreme  South 
would  have  become  a  short  haired  animal  like  the  gaur  of  India 
and  the  African  Buffalo.  The  ones  inhabiting  the  extreme 
North  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  would  have  de 
veloped  still  longer  hair  and  taken  on  more  of  the  dense  hairy- 
ness  of  the  musk  ox.  It  would  be  easy  to  fill  volumes  with 
facts  relating  to  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  Bison 
Americanus  and  dates  of  occupancy  and  disappearance  in 
multitude  of  different  localities  embraced  within  the  immense 
area  it  once  inhabited.  But  to  little  purpose.  I  have  drawn 
liberally  from  the  life  history  of  the  Bison  by  Wm.  T.  Horna- 
day  as  submitted  to  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  June  30,  1887,  wherein  he  acknowledges  his  in 
debtedness  to  Professor  Allen's  work. 

While  it  is  inexpedient  to  include  here  all  the  facts  that 
might  be  recorded  with  reference  to  the  discovery  existence 
and  ultimate  extinction  of  the  Buffalo,  yet  it  is  worth  while 
to  mention  briefly  the  extreme  limits  of  its  range.  There  is 
no  indisputable  evidence  that  the  Buffalo  ever  inhabited  the 
precise  locality  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  it  is  probable 
that  it  did.  In  1612  Captain  Argoll  sailed  up  the  Pembrook 
River  to  the  head  of  navigation.  Mr.  Allen  believes  this  was 

26 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

the  James  River  and  not  the  Potomac  and  marched  inland  a 
few  miles  where  he  discovered  Buffalo,  some  of  which  were 
killed  by  his  Indian  guides.  If  this  river  was  the  Potomac 
and  most  authorities  believe  it  was,  the  Buffalo  seen  by  Argoll 
might  easily  have  been  in  what  is  now  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  Admitting  the  existence  of  a  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  Pembrook  River  of  Captain  Argoll  there  is  yet 
another  bit  of  history  which  fairly  established  the  fact  that  in 
the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  Buffalo  inhabited 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac  between  this  city  and  the  lower 
falls.  In  1624  an  English  fur  trader  named  Henry  Fleet  came 
hither  to  trade  with  the  Anacostian  Indians  who  then  inhab 
ited  the  present  site  of  the  city  of  Washington  with  the  tribes 
of  the  upper  Potomac. 

In  his  journal,  discovered  a  few  years  since  in  the  Lam- 
berth  Library,  London,  Fleet  gave  a  quaint  description  of  the 
city's  site  as  it  then  apeared.  The  following  is  from  the  'ex 
plorer's  journal : 

Monday  the  25th  of  June,  we  sailed  for  the  town  of 
Tohoga  where  we  came  to  an  anchor  two  leagues  short  of  the 
falls.  This  place  without  question  is  the  most  pleasant  and 
healthful  place  in  all  this  country  and  most  convenient  for 
habitation,  the  air  temperate  in  summer  and  not  violent  in 
winter.  It  aboundeth  with  all  manners  of  fish.  The  Indians 
in  one  night  will  catch  thirty  Sturgeons  in  a  place  where  the 
river  is  not  above  twelve  fathoms  broad,  and  as  for  deer,  buf 
falo  and  bears  and  turkeys  the  woods  do  swarm  with  them. 

Of  the  numerous  references  to  "the  occurrence  of  Bison  in 
Virginia  it  is  sufficie  to  allude  to  Colonel's  Byrd's  meeting 
with  Buffalo  in  1620  while  surveying  the  Southern  boundary 
of  the  state  as  already  referred  to.  The  reference  to  the  dis 
covery  of  Buffalo  on  the  Eastern  side  of  the  Virginia  moun 
tains  quoted  by  Mr.  Allen  from  Salmon's  Present  State  of 
Virginia,  Page  14  (London),  1937,  the  capture  and  domestica 
tion  of  Buffalo  in  1701  by  the  Huguenot  Settlers  at  Minikin- 
town  which  was  situated  on  the  James  River  about  fourteen 
miles  above  Richmond,  apparently  Buffalo  were  more  numer 
ous  in  Virginia  than  in  any  other  of  the  Atlantic  States.  Col. 
Byrd's  discoveries  along  the  state  boundary  between  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina  fixes  the  presence  of  the  Buffalo  in  the 
Northern  part  of  the  latter  state. 

The  following  letter  to  Prof.  G.  Brown  Goode  dated 
Birdsnest,  P.  O.,  Virginia,  Aug.  6th,  1888,  from  Mr.  C.  R. 

27 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

Moore  furnishes  reliable  evidence  of  the  presence  of  the  Buf 
falo  at  another  point  in  North  Carolina. 

In  the  winter  of  1857  I  was  staying  for  the  night  at  the 
house  of  an  old  gentleman  named  Huston.  I  should  judge  he 
was  seventy.  He  lived  near  Buffalo  Ford  on  the  Catawba 
River  about  four  miles  from  Statesville,  N.  C.  I  asked  him 
how  the  ford  got  its  name.  He  told  me  that  his  grandfather 
told  him  that  when  he  was  a  boy  the  Buffalo  crossed  there  and 
that  when  the  rocks  in  the  river  were  bare  they  would  eat  the 
moss  that  grew  upon  them.  The  point  indicated  is  in  longi 
tude  81  degrees  West  and  the  date  not  far  from  1750; 

Professor  Allen  cites  numerous  authorities  whose  observa 
tions  furnish  abundant  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  Buffalo 
in  South  Carolina  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  From  these  it  is  quite  evident  that  in  the  northwestern 
half  of  the  state  Buffalo  were  once  fairly  numerous. 

Keating  declares  on  the  authority  of  Colhoun  that  we 
know  that  some  of  those  who  first  settled  the  Abbeville  dis 
trict  in  South  Carolina  in  1756  found  Buffalo  there.  The  ex 
treme  Southeastern  limit  of  the  Buffalo  range  in  the  U.  S. 
was  the  coast  of  Georgia,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Altamaha 
River  opposite  St.  Simmons  Islands,  Mr.  Francis  Moore  in  his 
voyage  to  Georgia  made  in  1736  and  reported  upon  in  1744 
makes  the  following  observation : 

The  Island  of  St.  Simon  abounds  with  deer  and  rabbits, 
there  are  no  Buffalo  on  it  though,  there  are  large  herds  upon 
the  main — elsewhere  in  the  same  document,  page  122,  refer 
ence  is  made  of  Buffalo  hunting  by  Indians  on  the  main  land 
near  Darien. 

In  James  E.  Oglethorpe's  report,  1733,  of  wild  beasts  of 
Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  he  mentions  deer,  elks,  bear, 
wolves  and  Buffalo,  up  to  the  time  of  Moore's  voyage  to 
Georgia  the  interior  was  almost  wholly  unexplored  and  it  is 
almost  certain  that  had  not  the  large  herds  of  Buffalo  on  the 
main  land  existed  within  a  distance  of  twenty  or  thirty  miles 
or  less  from  the  coast,  the  Colonists  would  have  had  no  knowl 
edge  of  them  nor  would  the  Indians  have  taken  to  the  warpath 
against  the  whites  at  Darien — under  pretense  of  hunting  Buf 
falo.  I  believe  that  the  Buffalo  once  inhabited  the  Northern 
half  of  Alabama  though  history  fails  to  record  it. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  Buffalo  were 
plentiful  in  Southern  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  not  only  down 
to  the  coast  from  -Bay  St.  Louis  to  Biloxi  but  in  the  very  Delta 

28 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

of  the  Mississippi  as  the  following  records  show.  In  a  Me 
moir  addressed  to  Count  de  Ponchartrain,  December  10th, 
1698  the  Author  M.  de  Remonville  describes  the  country 
around  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (now  in  the  state  of  Lou 
isiana)  and  says :  A  great  abundance  of  wild  cattle  are  found. 
Whether  these  animals  were  Buffalo  might  be  considered  an 
open  question  but  for  following  additional  information  which 
aford  spositive  proof.  The  trade  in  furs  and  peltry  would  be 
immensely  valuable  and  exceedingly  profitable.  We  could 
also  draw  from  thence  a  great  quantity  of  Buffalo  hides  every 
year  as  the  plains  are  filled  with  the  animals.  In  the  same 
volume,  page  47,  in  a  document  entitled  "Annals  of  Louisi 
ana',,  from  1698  to  1722,  by  M.  Penicaut  1698,  the  author 
records  the  presence  of  the  Buffalo  on  the  Gulf  Coast  on  the 
banks  of  the  Bay  St.  Louis  as  follows :  The  next  day  we  left 
Pea  Island  and  camped  at  the  entrance  of  the  Bay  near  a  foun 
tain  of  water  that  flows  from  the  hills  and  which  was  called 
at  this  time  "Belle  Fountain."  We  hunted  during  several 
days  upon  the  coast  of  this  Bay  and  filled  our  boats  with  meat 
of  the  deer,  buffalo  and  other  wild  game,  and  carried  it  to  the 
Fort  Biloxi.  The  appearance  of  the  Buffalo  at  Natchez  is 
recorded  as  follows:  We  ascended  the  Mississippi  to  Pass 
Manchac  where  we  killed  fifteen  Buffalo.  The  next  day  we 
landed  again  and  killed  eight  more  Buffalo  and  as  many 
deer.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  thousands  of  Buffalo 
once  roamed  over  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  Louisiana.  The 
Choctaws  have  an  interesting  tradition  in  regards  to  the  dis 
appearance  of  the  Buffalo  from  Mississippi.  It  relates  that 
during  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  great  draught 
occurred  which  was  particularly  severe  in  the  prairie  regions. 
For  three  years  not  a  drop  of  rain  fell.  The  Nowubee  and 
Tombigbee  Rivers  dried  up  and  the  forests  perished.  The 
Elk  and  Buffalo  which  up  to  that  time  had  been  numerous 
all  migrated  to  the  country  beyond  the  Big  Muddy  and  never 
returned.  It  will  be  remembered  that  it  was  in  Southeastern 
Texas,  in  all  probability  within  fifty  miles  of  the  present  city 
of  Houston,  that  the  earliest  discovery  of  the  American  Bison 
on  its  native  heath  was  made  in  1530  by  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  a 
half-starved,  half-naked  Spaniard,  almost  the  only  surviving 
member  of  the  celebrated  expedition  which  burned  its  ships 
behind  it.  Buffalo  were  so  numerous  on  the  Colorado  River, 
Texas,  that  they  called  it  La  Riviere  Aux  Baeufs.  In  1542 

29 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

Coronado  while  on  his  celebrated  march  met  with  vast  herds 
of  Buffalo  on  the  upper  Pecos  River,  since  which  their  pres 
ence  in  the  valley  of  the  Pecos  has  been  well  known.  In  de 
scribing  the  journey  of  Espejo  down  the  Pecos  River  in  1584, 
Davis  says  in  Spanish  Conquest  of  New  Mexico:  They 
passed  down  a  river  they  called  Rio  de  las  Vaca  or  the  River 
of  Oxen.  The  Pecos,  the  same  cow  river  Vaca  describes  and 
was  so  named  because  of  the  great  herds  of  Buffalo  that  fed 
on  its  banks.  The  only  evidence  on  record  of  the  presence  of 
Buffalo  in  Oregon  was  the  finding  of  the  bones  of  an  animal 
that  resembled  those  of  the  Buffalo,  by  Professor  O.  C.  Marsh, 
in  1875,  in  the  foothills  of  the  Blue  Mountains.  It  is  well 
known  that  Buffalo  in  small  numbers  once  inhabited  North 
eastern  Utah.  A  few  were  killed  by  the  Mormons  prior  to 
1840  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake.  The  range  of  the 
Bison  *  probably  embraced  the  whole  of  Idaho.  Fremont 
states  that  in  the  spring  of  1824  the  Buffalo  were  spread  in 
immense  numbers  over  the  Green  River  and  Bear  River  Val 
leys,  and  through  all  the  country  lying  between  the  Colorado 
or  Green  River  and  the  Lewis  fork  of  the  Columbia,  in  the 
meridian  of  Fort  Hall,  then  forming  the  Western  limit  of 
their  range.  Between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  State 
lying  along  the  Mississippi  River  from  Minnesota  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  the  whole  country  was  one  vast  Buffalo  range. 
The  early  pioneers  of  the  last  century  thought  Buffalo  were 
abundant  on  the  Eastern  ranges.  But  the  herds  which  lived 
East  of  the  Mississippi  were  comparatively  mere  stragglers 
from  the  innumerable  mass  which  covered  the  great  Western 
pasture  region  from  the  Big  Muddy  to  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  Central 
Nebraska  was  considered  the  geographical  center  of  distribu 
tion  of  the  species  as  it  originally  existed.  Since  1860  to  1880 
the  center  of  the  herd  was  in  Southwestern  Dakota  and  South 
eastern  Montana.  One  could  fill  volumes  with  records  of 
plainsmen  and  pioneers  who  crossed  that  vast  region  between 
1820  to  1870  and  were  in  turn  surprised,  astounded  and  fre 
quently  dismayed  by  the  tens  of  thousands  of  Buffalo  they 
observed,  avoided  or  escaped  from.  They  lived  and  moved 
as  no  other  animal  ever  have,  in  great  multitudes,  covering 
scores  of  miles.  They  were  so  numerous  they  frequently 
stopped  boats  on  the  rivers,  threatened  to  overwhelm  travelers 
on  the  plains  and  in  later  years  derailed  locomotives  and  cars 

30 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

until  railway  engineers  learned  by  experience  the  wisdom  of 
stopping  their  trans  whenever  there  were  Buffalo  Crossing  the 
track.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  White  River  in  Southwestern 
Dakota,  Lewis  and  Clark  saw  in  1806  a  herd  of  Buffalo  which 
caused  them  to  make  the  following  record  in  their  journal: 

The  animals,  the  Buffalo,  are  now  so  numerous  that  from 
an  eminence  we  discovered  more  than  we  had  ever  seen  before 
at  one  time,  and  if  not  possible  to  calculate  the  moving  mul 
titude,  which  darkened  the  \vhole  plains,  we  are  convinced 
that  twenty  thousand  would  not  exaggerate  the  number.  Per 
haps  the  most  vivid  picture  ever  given  of  the  abundance  of 
the  Buffalo,  is  that  given  by  Colonel  R.  I.  Dodge  in  his 
"Plains  of  the  Great  West".  It  is  well  worth  reproducing 
entire.  In  May,  1871,  I  drove  in  a  light  wagon  from  old 
Fort  Zara,  to  Fort  Laniard,  on  the  Arkansas,  thirty-four  miles. 
At  least  twenty-five  miles  of  the  distance,  was  through  one 
immense  herd,  composed  of  countless  small  herds  of  Buffalo, 
then  on  their  journey  north.  The  road  ran  along  the  broad, 
level  bottom,  or  valley  of  the  river.  The  whole  country  ap 
peared  one  great  mass  of  Buffalo,  moving  slowly  to  the  north 
ward,  and  it  was  only  when  actually  among  them,  that  it  could 
be  ascertained  that  the  apparently  solid  mass  was  an  agglom 
eration  of  innumerable  small  herds,  from  about  fifty  to  two 
hundred  animals,  separated  from  the  surrounding  herds  by 
greater  or  less  space,  but  still  separated.  The  herds  in  the 
valley  sullenly  got  out  of  my  way,  and  turning,  stared  an 
instant,  then  started  out  at  full  speed  directly  towards  me, 
stampeding,  and  bringing  with  them  the  numerous  herds 
through  which  they  passed,  and  pouring  down  upon  me  all 
the  herd,  no  longer  separated,  but  one  immense  compact  mass 
of  plunging  animals,  mad  with  fright,  and  as  irresistible  as 
an  avalanche.  The  situation  was  by  no  means  pleasant. 
Reigning  up  my  horse,  which  was  fortunately  a  quiet  old 
beast  that  had  been  at  the  death  of  many  a  Buffalo,  so  that 
the  wildest,  maddest  rush  only  caused  him  to  cock  his  ears  in 
wonder  at  their  unnecessary  excitement.  I  waited  until  the 
herd  was  within  fifty  yards,  when  a  few  well-directed  shots 
split  the  herd,  and  sent  it  pouring  off  in  two  streams,  to  my 
right  and  left.  When  all  had  passed  me,  they  stopped,  appar 
ently  perfectly  satisfied,  though  thousands  were  yet  in  reach 
of  my  rifle,  many  less  than  one  hundred  yards.  Disdaining  to 
fire  again,  I  sent  my  servant  to  cut  out  the  tongues  of  the 

31 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

fallen.  This  occurred  so  often  within  the  next  ten  miles, 
that  when  I  arrived  at  Fort  Larnard  I  had  twenty-six  tongues 
in  my  wagon,  representing  the  greatest  number  of  Buffalo 
that  my  conscience  can  reproach  me  for  having  murdered, 
in  a  single  day.  I  was  not  hunting,  wanted  no  meat,  and 
would  not  voluntarily  have  fired  at  these  herds.  I  killed 
only  in  self-preservation,  and  fired  almost  every  shot  from 
the  wagon.  The  great  herd  on  the  Arkansas  River,  through 
which  I  passed,  could  not  have  averaged  at  best  over  fifteen 
or  twenty  to  the  acre,  but  was  from  my  own  observation  not 
less  than  twenty-five  miles  wide,  and  from  reports  of  hunters, 
and  others,  it  was  five  days  in  passing  a  given  point,  not  less 
than  fifty  miles  deep.  From  the  top  of  the  Pawnee  Rock,  I 
could  see  from  six  to  ten  miles  in  almost  every  direction.  This 
whole  vast  space  was  covered  with  Buffalo,  looking  like  one 
compact  mass,  the  visual  angle  not  permitting  the  ground  to 
be  seen.  I  have  seen  such  a  sight  a  number  of  times,  but  never 
on  so  large  a  scale.  That  was  the  last  of  the  great  herds,  ac 
cording  to  his  recorded  observation,  the  herd  extended  along 
the  river  for  a  distance  of  twenty-five  miles,  wrhich  was  in 
reality  the  width  of  the  vast  procession  that  was  moving 
North,  and  back  from  the  road  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach 
on  both  sides.  It  is  making  a  low  estimate  to  consider  the 
extent  of  the  visible  ground  at  one  mile  on  either  side.  This 
would  give  a  strip  of  country  two  miles  wide,  by  twenty-five 
long,  or  a  total  of  fifty  square  miles,  covered  with  Buffalo, 
averaging  from  fifteen  to  twenty  to  the  acre.  Taking  a  lesser 
number  in  order  to  be  below  the  truth,  rather  than  above  it, 
we  find  that  the  number  actually  seen  that  day  by  Colonel 
Dodge,  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  450,000,  not  counting  the 
number  seen  from  the  top  of  Pawnee  Rock,  which  if  added, 
would  easily  bring  the  total  up  to  a  round  half  million. 

If  the  advancing  multitude  had  been  at  all  points  fifty 
miles  in  length,  as  it  was  known  to  have  been  in  some  places 
at  least,  twenty-five  miles  in  width,  and  still  averaged  fifteen 
head  to  the  acre  of  ground,  it  would  have  contained  the  enor 
mous  number  of  12,000,000  head.  But  judging  from  general 
principles  governing  such  migrations,  it  is  almost  certain  that 
the  moving  mass  advanced  in  the  shape  of  a  wedge,  which 
would  make  it  necessary  to  deduct  about  two-thirds  from  the 
actual  number  of  Buffalo  in  that  great  herd,  which  I  believe 
is  likely  to  be  below  the  truth  than  above  it. 

32 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

No  wonder  that  the  men  of  the  west,  of  those  days,  both 
white  and  red,  thought  it  would  be  impossible  to  exterminate 
such  a  mighty  multitude.  The  Indians,  of  some  tribek,  be 
lieved  that  the  Buffaloes  issued  from  the  earth  continually, 
and  that  the  supply  was  necessarily  inexhaustible,  and  yet  in 
five  short  years,  the  Southern  herd  was  almost  totally  anni 
hilated. 

The  existence  of  two  kinds  of  Buffalo,  is  firmly  believed 
by  many  of  the  Northern  hunters,  and  frontiersmen,  along 
the  Western  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  far  North  as 
the  great  Peace  River.  The  Wood  Buffalo,  as  it  is  called,  is 
very  scarce  and  only  found  North  of  the  Saskatchewan,  on  the 
flanks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Some  years  ago  in  conversa 
tion  with  an  old  Northern  hunter,  he  told  me  that  there  were  a 
few  wood  Buffalo  in  Athabasca,  along  the  Salt  River. 

In  Professor  John  Macoun's  "Manitoba  and  the  Great 
Northwest",  there  occurs  the  following  reference  to  the  wood 
Buffalo:  In  the  winter  of  1870,  the  last  Buffalo  were  killed 
North  of  Peace  River,  but,  in  1875,  about  one  thousand  head 
were  still  in  existence,  between  the  Athabasca  and  Peace 
River,  north  of  the  Little  Slave  Lake.  These  wood  Buffalo 
differ  only  in  size  from  those  of  the  plains.  In  a  recent  com 
munication  with  that  great  scout,  Ed.  L.  Carson,  of  Burling 
ton,  Washington,  seeking  reliable  information  as  to  the  exist 
ence  of  Buffalo  in  the  British  Northwest.  I  will  quote  his 
entire  letter : 

Mr.  Hill: 

Your  mention  of  Buffalo  leads  me  to  think  you  are  inter 
ested  in  the  Peace  River  country,  so  I  will  answer  you  on 
that  supposition.  Yes,  there  are  several  hundred  wild  Buffalo 
in  that  region,  but  for  the  "love  of  pork"  don't  ever  think 
of  shooting  one  of  them.  Take  a  crack  at  a  Creek  Indian,  or 
a  homesteader,  if  you  want  excitement,  and  if  you  should 
make  a  bull's-eye,  the  worst  they  would  do  to  you  would  be 
to  hang  you,  but  that  is  nothing  to  what  would  happen  if  you 
shoot  one  of  those  sacred  bulls. 

They  are  protected  by  the  government,,  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  is  not  really  safe  to  speak  harshly  to  them. 

There  is  plenty  of  other  game  there,  however,  so  do  not 
despair.  You  can  find  bear,  wolf,  moose,  coyote,  deer,  lynx, 
skunk,  wolverine,  and  other  savage  beasts  in  sufficient  num- 

34 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

her,  to  keep  you  in  good  humor.  While  if  you  get  far  enough 
from  civilization,  you  will  come  across  the  lordly  caribou,  in 
herds  of  thousands.  This  may  sound  strong,  but  it  is  a  fact 
just  the  same.  Unlike  most  other  terrestrial  animals  of 
America,  so  long  as  he  roamed  at  will  over  the  vast  plains, 
the  Buffalo  had  settle  migratory  habits,  while  the  elk,  and 
black  tail  deer  changed  their  altitude  twice  a  year  in  con 
formity  with  the  approach  and  disappearance  of  winter,  the 
Buffalo  makes  a  radical  change  in  latitude.  This  was  most 
noticeable  in  the  great  Western  pasture  region,  where  the 
herds  were  more  numerous,  and  their  movements  more  easily 
observed.  The  herds  that  wintered  in  Texas  and  the  Indian 
Territory  migrated  to  Nebraska,  Colorado  and  Wyoming 
in  the  spring.  The  winter  herds  of  Colorado,  Wyoming  and 
Nebraska  went  to  the  prairies  along  the  Saskatchewan  and 
the  Great  Slave  Lake.  This  was  the  great  Northern  herd. 
The  geographical  center  of  the  great  Southern  herd  during  the 
few  years  of  its  separate  existence  before  its  destruction,  was 
near  the  present  site  of  Garden  City,  Kansas,  as  late  at  1872, 
thousands  ranged  within  ten  miles  of  Wichita,  Kansas,  which 
was  then  the  headquarters  for  a  number  of  hunters,  who  plied 
their  occupation  vigorously  during  the  winter ;  on  the  North 
the  herd  ranged  within  twenty-five  miles  of  the  Union  Pacific, 
until  swarms  of  hunters,  coming  down  from  the  north,  drove 
them  farther  and  farther  South.  On  the  West  a  few  small 
bands  ranged  as  far  as  Pike's  Peak.  In  the  southwest  Buffalo 
were  abundant  as  far  as  the  Pecos  and  the  Stakes  Plains. 
Their  most  prized  feeding  grounds  was  the  section  of  country 
between  the  South  Platte  and  Arkansas  Rivers.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  went  South  each  winter,  thousands  remained.  It 
was  the  chosen  home  of  the  Buffalo. 

During  the  years  from  1866  to  1871,  when  the  Kansas 
Pacific  Railroad  was  constructed  through  the  heart  of  the 
Southern  Buffalo  range  the  Southern  herd  was  literally  cut  to 
pieces  by  the  railway,  and  every  portion  of  its  range  rendered 
easily  accessible.  The  rush  to  the  range  was  only  surpassed 
by  the  rush  to  the  gold  mines  of  California  in  the  early  days. 
Railroad  builders,  teamsters,  fortune-seekers,  professional 
hunters,  trappers,  guides,  and  everyone  out  of  a  job,  turned 
out  to  hunt  Buffalo  for  hides,  and  meat.  An  immense  busi 
ness  of  the  kind  was  done  by  the  merchants  of  Fort  Dodge, 
Wichita,  and  Leavenworth.  During  the  years  from  1871  to 

35 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

1874  little  else  was  done  in  that  country  except  Buffalo  kill 
ing.  Central  depots  were  established  in  the  best  Buffalo  coun 
try  from  whence  hunting  parties  operated  in  all  directions. 
As  late  as  1878  there  wrere  a  lot  of  baled  Buffalo  skins  in  a 
corrall  at  Dodge  City,  which  measured  120  cords.  Thousands 
were  killed  for  their  tongues  alone,  and  thousands  more  were 
wounded  by  unskilled  marksmen,  and  wandered  off  to  die,  and 
be  devoured  by  wolves,  a  total  loss. 

The  great  slaughter  began  in  1871.  By  1873  it  was  at  its 
height.  Just  at  the  beginning  of  the  slaughter  the  breech- 
loading  long-range  rifles  attained,  what  was  near  perfection. 
The  Sharps,  40-90  and  45-120  were  the  favorite  weapons — 
the  best  long-range  gun  ever  made.  Before  the  leaden  hail 
of  the  thousands  of  these  deadly  breech-loaders  the  Buffalo 
went  down  in  thousands,  every  day  during  the  hunting 
season.  The  slaughter  .was  greatest  along  the  lines  of  the 
three  railways :  the  Kansas  Pacific,  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and 
Santa  Fe,  and  the  Union  Pacific.  During  1873,  the  Atchison, 
Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  carried  out  25,443  robes,  1,617,600 
pounds  of  meat,  and  2,743,100  pounds  of  bone.  These  robes 
represented  about  one  out  of  every  three  Buffalo  that  were 
killed.  By  the  close  of  the  hunting  season  of  1876  the  great 
Southern  herd  had  been  annihilated.  The  main  herd  of  the 
survivors,  numbering  about  ten  thousand  head,  fled  South 
west,  and  disappeared  in  that  inhospitable  country,  the  Llano 
Estacado  or  Staked  Plains. 

in  1879,  two  hunters  brought  into  Fort  Worth,  about 
two  thousand  robes — the  last  shipment  of  any  consequence 
from  Texas.  In  the  fall  of  1885,  just  after  the  fall  roundup, 
I  was  sent  with  an  outfit  consisting  of  the  chuck  wagon,  and 
cook,  horse  wrangler  and  five  other  men,  Jim  Keen,  John 
Sebrel,  Joe  Hamilton,  Dock  Lorance,  Fred  La  Breche  and 
Link  Gates  of  the  R.  Quarter-Circle  outfit,  to  the  Sentinel 
Butte  country  to  hunt  for  two  work  horses  that  had  gotten 
away  two  years  previous,  and  had  been  seen  in  that  country. 
The  outfit  belonged  to  Towers  and  Gudgell,  the  O.  X.  outfit, 
and  all  the  men  were  working  for  them,  except  Link  Gates. 

We  crossed  Big  Beaver,  about  fifteen  miles  South  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  ailroad  and  were  riding  up  a  level  valley 
resembling  an  ancient  river  bed  with  Scorio  Buttes  on  either 
side,  otherwise  a  leve  Icountry,  rich,  nutritious  grasses  every 
where.  We  saw  seven  animals  in  the  distance,  all  the  same 

36 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

color.  Fred  La  Breche,  who  had  been  a  Buffalo  hunter,  said 
they  were  Buffalo,  and  called  our  attention  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  grazing  against  the  wind,  and  all  looked  higher  in 
front.  We  wraited  until  the  kid  came  up  with  the  remuda 
and  then  changed  to  our  best  horses.  I  selected  "Brown  Jug", 
my  Buffalo  horse.  We  kept  out  of  sight  behind  the  Buttes 
until  near  enough  to  make  a  dash  for  them.  I  killed  one 
monster  old  bull,  and  shot  a  spike  bull  in  the  hump.  The 
other  boys  couldn't  get  their  horses  up  near  enough.  We 
were  only  using  six-shooters.  I  could  have  killed  the  whole 
bunch  if  I  had  had  a  pocket  full  of  cartridges  and  so  desired. 
I  had  only  five  cartridges  in  my  six-shooter,  and  having  a  new 
belt  full,  I  could  not  get  them  out  with  one  hand,  while  run 
ning  at  full  speed.  Just  as  I  fired  my  last  shot,  the  only  re 
maining  old  bull  in  the  bunch,  whirled  round  and  faced  me. 
I  thought  he  was  going  to  fight,  and  I  sat  there  on  my  horse 
trying  to  extract  a  cartridge  from  my  belt.,  He  stood  there 
facing  me — not  over  twenty-five  yards  away — perfectly  still, 
seeming  to  say  in  his  mute  way:  "I  am  the  last  of  my  race; 
shoot  me  down."  For  a  few  minutes  he  stood  gazing  at  me, 
then  whirled  and  ran  after  the  others  that  were  then  very 
nearly  out  of  sight.  I  watched  him  until  he  looked  like  a 
speck  in  the  distance — going  due  North. 

That  was  the  last  wild  Buffalo  I  ever  saw  on  the  plains. 
That  was  the  remnant  of  the  great  Northern  herd  that  in  1882 
was  estimated,  by  most  all  the  old  hunters,  to  contain  at  least 
100,000  head  that  went  North  in  the  fall  of  1882.  Only  a  few 
stragglers  ever  returned.  As  near  as  could  be  estimated  there 
were,  in  1865,  9,500,000  Buffalo  on  the  plains  between  the 
Missouri  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains — now  all  gone, 
killed  for  their  skins.  At  that  date  there  were  about  165,000 
Pawnees,  Siouxs,  Cheyenne  and  Arapahoe  Indians,  who  were 
dependent  on  the  Buffalo  for  their  food  and  clothing.  If  the 
Redman  had  been  a  man  of  foresight,  he  would  have  seen 
what  his  wholesale  slaughter  would  soon  result  in,  and  would 
have  been  moved  by  common  impulse  to  kill  sparingly,  and 
by  reasonable  economy  in  the  chase  have  made  the  Buffalo 
last  as  long  as  possible.  But  apparently  no  such  thoughts 
ever  entered  their  minds,  so  far  as  they  themselves  were  con-  * 
cerned.  They  looked  with  jealous  eyes  upon  the  white 
hunter,  and  considered  him  as  much  a  robber,  as  if  they  had  a 
brand  on  every  Buffalo.  It  has  been  claimed  by  some  that 

37 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

the  Indians  killed  with  more  care  for  the  future  than  the 
white  man.  I  fail  to  find  any  evidence  that  such  was  the  fact. 
They  witnessed  the  herds  being  driven  farther  and  farther 
back  and  the  narrowing  down  of  the  limits  of  their  hunting 
grounds.  Still  when  in  need  of  food  they  killed  wastfully, 
wantonly  and  always  many  more  than  they  needed  for  food, 
and  seventy-five  per  cent  of  their  slaughter  would  be  left 
to  fatten  the  wolves. 

It  was  the  hide  hunter  that  caused  the  early  extermina 
tion  of  the  great  herds  of  Buffalo  from  the  Western  plains. 
The  lure  of  the  chase  and  the  small  amount  they  received  for 
each  robe  or  skin,  caused  the  greatest  slaughter  of  the  finest 
food  animals  in  the  world,  of  so  great  a  size.  Tons  of  whole 
some  meat  were  left  to  putrefy  on  the  prairies,  or  food  for 
thousands  of  wolves  that  followed  the  trail  of  the  Buffalo. 
The  average  prices  paid  the  hide  hunters  was  about  as  fol 
lows  :  For  cow  hides,  three  dollars ;  bull  hides,  two-fifty ; 
yearlings,  one-fifty,  and  calves,  seventy-five  cents.  Joseph 
Ullman  of  Chicago,  paid  out  for  robes  and  hides  in  the  four 
years  during  the  killing  of  the  Northern  herd  $310,000.  Dur 
ing  the  course  of  eight  years,  from  1876  to  1883,  the  two  firms 
of  Joseph  Ullman  Co.,  and  A.  J.  Boskowitz,  of  New  York,  and 
Chicago,  paid  out  for  Buffalo  skins  $1,233,070.  Besides  these 
firms  there  were  many  others  who  handled  thousands  of  robes 
for  which  they  paid  immense  sums  of  money.  The  Hudson 
Ba_y  Fur  Company  handled  many  thousands  of  robes.  Of  all 
the  deadly  methods  of  Buffalo  slaughter  the  still  hunt  was  the 
deadliest.  Destitute  of  every  element  of  buoyant  excitement 
and  spice  of  danger  that  accompanied  Buffalo  hunting  on 
horseback  the  still  hunt  was  mere  butchery  of  the  tamest  and 
most  cruel  kind. 

There  was  none  of  the  true  excitement  of  the  chase. 
The  Buffalo  owes  his  early  extermination  largely,  to  his  own 
unparalleled  stupidity.  So  long  as  the  Buffalo  remained  in 
large  herds,  their  numbers  gave  them  a  feeling  of  safety.  A 
dependence  upon  his  fellows  of  a  general  security  from  harm, 
even  in  the  presence  of  strange  phenomena  which  he  did  not 
understand.  When  he  heard  a  loud  report  and  saw  a  little 
smoke  from  top  of  a  ridge  200  yards  away  he  wondered  what  it 
meant  and  held  himself  in  readiness  to  follow  his  leader  in  case 
she  should  run  away.  But  when  the  leader  of  the  herd,  usually 
an  old  cow,  fell  bleeding  to  the  ground,  instead  of  acting  in- 

38 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

dependently  and  fleeing  from  the  alarm,  he  waited  his  turn 
to  be  shot  down.  Generally  the  trained  eye  of  the  hunter 
would  locate  the  leader  of  the  herd,  and  a  well-directed  shot 
from  his  Old  Reliable,  through  the  lungs,  would  cause  the 
leader  to  stand  coughing  up  blood  for  a  few  moments,  thus 
holding  the  amazed  animals  until  the  hunter  would  accom 
plish  his  merciless  slaughter.  Captain  Jack  Brydges  of  Kan 
sas,  one  of  the  first  to  begin  the  final  slaughter  of  the  South 
ern  herd,  killed  by  contract  one  thousand  and  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  Buffalo  in  six  weeks.  It  was  the  ability  of  a  single 
hunter  to  destroy  such  a  herd  in  a  day,  that  caused  the  com 
plete  annihilation  of  the  Northern  herd  before  the  people 
learned  what  was  going  on.  For  example :  Vic  Smith,  the 
most  famous  hunter  in  Montana,  killed  107  Buffaloes  in  one 
stand,  in  about  one  hour's  time,  and  without  shifting  his  point 
of  attack.  This  occurred  in  the  Red  Water  country  about 
100  miles  northeast  of  Miles  City  in  the  winter  of  1881-82. 
During  the  same  season  another  hunter,  Doc.  Aughl,  killed 
eighty-five  at  one  stand,  and  John  Edwards  killed  seventy- 
five  at  one  stand.  The  total  number  that  Vic  Smith  claims 
to  have  killed  that  season  is  5,000.  Where  Buffalo  were 
plentiful  every  man  who  called  himself  a  hunter  was  expected 
to  kill  between  one  and  two  thousand  during  the  hunting 
season — from  November  to  February. 

There  arrived  in  Miles  City,  Montana,  September  24, 
1886,  an  expedition  sent  out  by  the  Smithsonian  Institute, 
headed  by  William  T.  Homaday,  Chief  Taxidermist  of  the  na 
tional  museum,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  specimens  of  the 
American  Bison,  then  on  the  verge  of  extinction.  Through 
the  courtesy  of  the  War  Department,  an  order  was  sent  to  the 
officer  commanding  the  Department  of  Dakota,  requesting 
him  to  furnish  the  party  through  the  officers  in  command  at 
Fort  Keogh  such  field  transportation,  escort  and  camp  equip 
age  as  might  be  necessary.  The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  also 
favored  the  party  with  an  order  directing  all  Indian  agents, 
scouts  and  others  in  the  service  of  the  Department  to  render 
assistance  as  far  as  possible  when  called  upon.  Mr.  Horna- 
day  was  accompanied  by  W.  Harvey  Brown,  a  student  of 
the  University  of  Kansas,  as  field  assistant.  They  had  prev 
iously  engaged  three  cowboys  as  guides  and  hunters. 

Irwin  Boyd  James  McNaney  and  L.  S.  Russell.  Mr.  Mc- 
Naney  was  a  Buffalo  hunter  of  some  repute,  having  served  in 

39 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

that  capacity  for  three  years.  They  were  equipped  with  a 
six-mule  team  and  escort  of  six  men  in  charge  of  Sergeant 
Bayliss,  an  old  veteran  of  more  than  twenty  years  in  the  ser 
vice,  from  the  Fifth  Infantry.  Private  Patrick  McCanna,  who 
was  also  detailed  to  act  as  cook  and  camp  guard  for  the  party. 
They  had  been  previously  informed  by  letter  from  Dr.  J.  C. 
Merrill,  United  States  Army,  at  Huntley,  Montana,  that  there 
were  a  fewr  head  of  Buffalo  still  to  be  found  in  three  localities 
in  the  Northwest,  on  the  headwaters  of  Powder  River,  in 
Wyoming,  in  the  Judith  Basin,  Montana,  and  on  Big-  Dry 
Creek,  in  Montana ;  and  that  there  was  a  scattered  band  of 
about  200  head  running  between  the  Canadian  River,  and  the 
Staked  Plains,  Texas.  They  determined  to  hunt  the  North 
west  country  first  and  Texas  as  a  last  resort. 

On  arriving  at  Miles  City,  they  soon  found  that  the  report 
regarding  Powder  iver  and  the  Judith  Basin  was  erroneous. 
All  inquiries  elicited  the  same  reply :  "There  are  no  Buffalo 
anymore,  and  you  can't  get  any,  anywhere."  Many  persons 
who  were  considered  good  authority,  declared  most  positively 
that  there  was  not  a  live  Buffalo  in  Montana  outside  of  the 
Yellowstone  Park  herd,  or  some  privately  owned.  While  I 
had  never  been  north  of  the  Yellowstone,  I  had  ridden  the 
range  South  of  the  Yellowstone  for  several  years,  then  the 
very  heart  of  the  Buffalo  range,  where  they  made  their  last 
stand,  where  the  last  of  the  great  Northern  herd  was 
claughtered.  I  was  right  in  saying  there  were  no  Buffalo  on 
Powder  River  nor  anywhere  in  Montana,  then,  south  of  the 
Yellowstone.  Just  then  the  prospect  of  finding  any  Buffalo 
was  not  very  bright  and  Mr.  Hornaday  was  losing  hopes  of 
securing  the  number  desired  for  the  museum. 

It  was  again  reported  that  a  few  head  remained  in  the 
country  south  if  the  Big  Dry  Creek,  and  the  report  confirmed 
by  Mr.  Henry  Phillips,  owner  of  the  L.  U.  Bar  Ranch  and 
cattle  on  Little  Dry  Creek.  On  the  other  hand  others  who 
seemed  well  informed  regarding  that  region,  assured  them 
that  not  a  single  Buffalo  remained  there.  But  the  balance  of 
evidence  seemed  in  favor  of  the  Big  Dry  country,  and  the 
party  resolved  to  hunt  that  country  with  all  possible  haste. 

They  crossed  the  Yellowstone  September  26th,  1886,  at 
Miles  City  and  struck  the  Sunday  Creek  Trail  for  the  H.  V. 
Ranch  on  Big  Dry  Creek.  They  reached  the  H.  V.  Ranch 
on  Big  Dry  Creek,  September  29th.  From  there  the  hunt  be- 

40 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

gan.  They  proceeded  up  the  Sand  Creek  trail,  the  wagon 
and  extra  horses  in  care  of  Harvey  Brown.  Sand  Creek  runs 
into  Big  Dry  Creek,  which  with  the  Little  Dry,  forms  the 
Big  Dry  Creek  which  empties  into  the  Big  Missouri.  The 
Big  Porcupine  Creek  heads  up  near  the  divide  of  Big  Dry 
Creek  and  with  the  Little  Porcupine  runs  South  into  the 
Yellowstone.  West  of  the  Big  Porcupine  Creek  lies  the 
Buffalo  Buttes  near  the  head  of  Taylor  Creek.  It  was  in  there 
the  last  of  the  great  herd  of  Buffalo  sought  refuge  from  the 
hide  hunters.  It  was  on  the  divide  between  Sand  Creek  and 
Calf  Creek  that  the  party  found  their  first  Buffalo,  on  Octo 
ber  13th  ;  seven  head  in  all.  They  were  discovered  by  Mr. 
Russell,  who  was  escorting  the  wagon  across  the  High  Di 
vide.  He  fired  a  few  shots  at  them  but  failed  to  get  any,  being 
on  a  tired  horse  and  was  unable  to  give  chase. 

The  next  morning  Mr.  Hornaday  and  the  three  cowboys 
mounted  their  best  horses  and  took  the  trail.  They  followed 
it  twenty  miles  due  South  to  the  head  of  Taylor  Creek.  Just 
at  noon  they  rode  onto  a  high  point  and  on  scanning  the 
country  with  glasses,  discovered  the  Buffalo  lying  on  the  top 
of  a  butte,  about  two  miles  aw^ay.  The  original  bunch  of 
seven  head  had  been  joined  by  an  equal  number,  making  four 
teen  in  all. 


CREE    INDIANS    IMPOUNDING    BUFFALOES. 
Reproduced  from  Prof.  H.  Y.  Hind's  "Red  River,  Assinniboine  arid  Saskatchewan 

Expedition." 


41 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 

Mr.  McNaney  killed  a  fine  old  bull,  and  a  two-year-old 
spike  out  of  the  herd,  and  Mr.  Hornaday  killed  a  cow  and  an 
old  bull,  making  four  for  the  day's  work.  This  herd  of  four 
teen  head  was  the  largest  bunch  they  saw  on  the  entire  trip. 
Two  days  later  when  they  were  on  the  same  spot  with  the 
wagon  to  skin  the  game  and  haul  it  in,  four  more  Buffalo  were 
discovered  within  two  miles  of  them,  and  while  some  of  them 
were  working  on  the  old  bulls  to  keep  them  from  spoiling,  the 
cowboys  went  after  the  Buffalo.  By  a  brilliant  exploit  they 
killed  all  of  them.  The  last,  an  immense  old  bull,  was  chased 
fully  twelve  miles  before  he  was  brought  down.  By  the  fif 
teenth  of  December  they  had  secured  twenty-five  specimens 
of  different  ages  and  sexes,  of  which  ten  were  old  bulls,  one 
young  bull,  seven  cows,  four  young  cows,  two  yearling  calves 
and  one  three-months'-old  calf.  In  their  collection  were  ten 
deer,  five  mule  deer  and  five  white  tail  deer,  three  wild  geese, 
seven  sharp  tailed  grouse  and  eleven  sage  hens.  Thy  had 
several  fine  antelope,  coyotes,  jack-rabbits,  and  other  birds 
and  mammals  found  in  that  country  at  that  season.  By  this 
time  the  weather  was  getting  cold  and  it  was  not  safe  to  be 
out  any  longer  if  they  wanted  to  get  in  before  spring. 

On  the  twenty-third  of  November,  Private  C.  S.  West 
started  to  Fort  Keogh  to  secure  teams  and  wagons  to  bring  in 
the  trophies  of  the  hunt.  On  the  25th  he  faced  the  worst 
storm  of  the  season.  The  mercury  dropped  to  16  below  zero, 
and  it  was  near  impossible  to  keep  a  course  in  the  face  of 
such  a  blizzard.  He  wandered  for  five  days  in  the  bad  lands, 
unable  to  find  a  trail  that  would  lead  him  to  a  camp.  He  was 
afraid  to  sleep  at  night  for  fear  of  freezing,  and  would  sleep  a 
little  in  the  warmest  part  of  the  day,  while  his  horses  rested. 
On  the  sixth  day  out,  he  found  a  trail  that  led  to  Crees' 
sheep  ranch  and  found  the  solitary  ranchman  at  home.  The 
warm-hearted  frontiersman  gave  the  starving  wanderers — 
man  and  horse — the  kindly  welcome  so  characteristic  of  the 
western  frontier.  After  two  or  three  days'  rest  and  feeding, 
of  both  man  and  horse,  the  storm  had  subsided,  and  he  wras 
able  to  go  on,  and  in  time  reached  Fort  Keogh.  Without  the 
loss  of  a  single  day,  Colonel  Gibson  started  three  teams  and 
an  escort  back  to  the  hunters.  Notwithstanding  his  terrible 
experience,  West  had  the  pluck  to  accompany  them  as  guide. 
His  arrival  among  them  once  more  was  like  the  dead  coming 
to  life.  They  had  had  searching  parties  out  looking  for  him, 

42 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

and  had  never  expected  to  see  him  alive  again.  He  proved 
what  a  man  with  a  determined  will  can  stand. 

The  party  reached  Miles  City  on  the  twentieth  of  Decem 
ber,  1886,  with  their  collection  in  fine  condition.  Thus  passed 
the  last  remnant  of  the  great  Northern  herd  of  Buffalo.  Those 
were  the  last  of  that  great  herd. 

This  expedition  left  about  fifteen  head  of  Buffalo  alive  in 
the  badlands  on  the  divide  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Yellow 
stone,  at  the  head  of  the  Big  Porcupine  Creek.  In  1887,  three 
of  these  were  killed  by  cowboys.  In  1888,  two  more  were 
killed.  On  September  llth,  1888,  a  solitary  bull  was  killed  in 
Dickey  County,  North  Dakota.  That  was  the  last  Buffalo 
ever  killed  in  the  Northwest, -that  I  have  any  knowledge  of. 

In  February,  1889,  Honorable  Joseph  M.  Carey,  member 
of  Congress  from  Wyoming,  received  a  letter  informing  him 
that  a  band  of  Buffalo,  consisting  of  twenty-six  head,  had  been 
seen  grazing  in  the  Red  Desert  country,  Wyoming,  and  that 
the  Indians  were  preparing  to  attack  them.  At  Carey's  re 
quest  the  Indian  Bureau  issued  orders  which  it  was  hoped, 
would  prevent  the  slaughter  of  this  pitiful  remnant  of  the 
once  great  herd. 

As  late  as  1887,  the  last  surviving  remnant  of  the  South 
ern  herd  numbered  approximately  one  hundred,  running  in  the 
Panhandle  of  Texas.  In  1888,  a  man  named  Lee  Howard 
fitted  out  a  party  and  led  them  to  the  haunts  of  these  few 
survivors,  and  killed  fifty-two  if  them.  In  May,  1888,  C.  J. 
Jones,  known  as  "Buffalo  Jones",  went  into  this  region  for  the 
purpose  of  capturing  Buffalo  alive.  His  party  found  all  told, 
thirty-seven  head,  of  which  they  captured  eighteen  head — the 
greatest  feat  ever  accomplished  in  Buffalo  hunting.  It  is  more 
than  probable  that  Mr.  Jones  and  his  men  saw  all  the  Buffalo 
living  in  the  Panhandle  country  at  that  time,  and  it  is  quite 
certain  that  not  more  than  twenty-five  individuals  remained. 

Today  those  are  gone.  I  do  not  believe  a  single  wild 
Buffalo  exists  on  the  American  continent,  excepting  those  of 
a  few  hundred  head  ranging  in  the  Peace  River  country,  or 
near  the  Great  Slave  Lake  in  the  British  Northwest.  The 
disappearance  of  the  Buffalo  from  the  West  was  one  of  the 
inevitable  results  of  the  advance  of  civilization.  To  the  early 
pioneers  who  wrent  forth  to  carve  the  \vay  in  the  wilderness, 
to  wrestle  with  nature  for  the  necessities  of  life,  this  valuable 
animal  seemed  like  a  gift  direct  from  the  hand  of  Providence. 

43 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 


TROPHIES    OF    THE    HUNT 

Mounted  by   the  author   in   the   U.    S.   Nation'!   Museum 
WILLIAM    T.  HORNADAY 

During  the  first  few  years  of  the  early  settlers'  life  in  a  new 
country  the  few  domestic  animals  he  had  brought  with  him 
were  far  too  valuable  to  be  killed  for  food,  and  for  a  long 
period  he  looked  to  the  wild  animals  of  the  forest  and  the 
prairie  for  his  daily  supply  of  meat.  The  time  was  when  no 
one  stopped  to  think  of  the  important  part  our  game  animals 
played  in  the  settlement  of  this  country,  and  even  now  no  one 
has  attempted  to  calculate  the  lessened  degree  of  rapidity  with 
which  the  star  of  the  empire  would  have  taken  its  Westward 
way  without  the  buffalo,  elk,  deer  and  the  antelope.  Although 
the  Buffalo  was  the  first  wild  species  to  disappear  before  the 
advance  of  the  all-conquering  civilization,  he  served  a  good 
purpose  at  a  highly  critical  period.  His  huge  bulk  of  tooth 
some  flesh  fed  many  a  hungry  family,  and  his  ample  robe  did 
good  service  in  the  settler's  cabin  and  sleigh  in  winter  \veather. 
From  the  time  the  bison  was  first  seen  by  white  men  he  has 
always  been  a  conspicuous  prize  and  being  the  largest  of  the 
land,  quadrupeds  were  naturally  the  first  to  disappear.  Every 
man's  hand  was  against  him. 

In  1881,  the  Northern  Pacific  ailroad  was  built  as  far 
West  as  Miles  City,  Montana.  At  that  time  the  whole  coun 
try  was  a  howling  wilderness  of  Indians,  and  wrild  Buffalo. 


44 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

The  first  shipment  of  robes  by  rail  from  the  North  was  made 
that  year,  of  about  fifty  thousand  hides.  In  1882,  about  200,- 
000  hides  were  shipped  over  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad;  in 
1883,  40,000;  in  1884,  only  one  carload  was  shipped  from  Dick 
inson,  Dakota  Territory,  the  last  shipment  of  Buffalo  robes 
ever  made.  For  a  time  the  old  hunters  cherished  the  fond  de 
lusion  that  the  great  herd  had  gone  north  into  the  British 
possessions,  and  would  return  in  great  numbers.  But  after  a 
year  or  two  had  gone  by  without  the  appearance  of  a  single 
Buffalo,  and  without  any  reliable  information  of  the  existence 
of  a  herd  of  any  size  in  the  British  Territory,  the  hunters 
hung  up  their  Sharp's  rifles  and  sought  other  means  of  liveli 
hood  ;  some  \vent  to  gathering  Buffalo  bones,  that  were  bleach 
ing  on  the  prairies ;  some  went  on  the  cattle  range  to  work  as 
cowboys. 

The  badlands  of  the  Little  Missouri  River,  from  the 
Northern  Pacific,  North  to  the  Yellowstone,  up  the  Yellow 
stone  to  the  mouth  of  the  Powder  River  and  comprising  all 
the  badlands  of  Big  Beaver  and  Glendive  Creek,  North  of 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  should  have  been  set  aside  for 
a  Buffalo  range  and  there  let  the  remnant  of  the  Northern 
herd  after  1884,  live  in  peace  and  multiply.  That  is  all  the 
country  is  fit  for  and  it  would  have  been  well  utilized. 

Naturally  as  soon  as  the  great  herds  began  to  grow 
scarce,  the  miles  of  bleaching  bones  suggested  the  idea  of 
finding  a  use  for  them.  A  market  was  found  in  the  east,  and 
the  prices  paid  per  ton  were  sufficient  to  make  the  business  of 
bone  gathering  quite  remunerative.  The  bulk  of  the  bone 
product  was  converted  into  phosphate  for  fertilizing  pur 
poses,  but  much  of  it  was  turned  into  carbon  for  use  in  the 
refining  of  sugar. 

As  early  as  1872,  the  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe 
Railroad  shipped  1,135,300  pounds  of  bones;  in  the  following 
year  shipped  2,743,100  pounds,  and  in  1874  the  same  road 
handled  6,914,950  pounds.  This  trade  continued  until  the 
plains  were  cleaned  so  far  back  from  the  railway  that  it  was 
found  no  longer  profitable. 

In  1881  I  saw  skeletons  of  the  Buffalo  at  Big  Springs,  Texas, 
lying  so  thick  on  the  ground  that  I  am  sure  I  could  have 
stepped  from  one  carcass  to  another,  without  touching  the 
ground,  for  two  miles  in  any  direction.  These  springs  lie  at 
the  foot  of  the  Llano  Estakado  or  Staked  Plains,  and  was 

45 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE 


46 


INDIAN  AND  BUFFALO 

the  only  place  the  Buffalo  and  mustangs  could  get  water  for 
miles  and  miles.  There  was  the  mecca  for  hunters  for  several 
years.  One  hunter  told  me  that  he  had  lain  low  and  kept 
away  for  twenty-four-hours  after  killing  as  many  as  he  could 
handle  for  a  while,  until  the  herd  had  watered  and  started  to 
move  away,  before  it  was  safe  for  him  to  attempt  to  skin  his 
kill,  for  fear  of  a  stampede,  and  he  would  get  trampled  to 
death. 

The  bone  gatherers  pushed  a  little  ahead  of  the  Texas 
and  Pacific  Railroad  and  piled  the  bones  along  the  line  for 
miles.  One  man  with  a  small  pony  team  and  only  his  little 
boy  to  help,  informed  me  that  at  Big  Springs,  he  had  cleared 
$2500  that  summer,  1881,  on  the  bones  he  had  gathered,  and 
he  never  handled  but  a  very  small  portion  of  what  was 
shipped  from  Big  Springs. 

In  1885,  one  outfit  shipped  over  200  tons  of  bones  from 
Miles  City,  Montana.  Now,  not  even  a  bone  is  left  in  a  hun 
dred  miles  of  a  railroad.  The  coming  generation  can  never 
believe  that  the  millions  of  Buffalo  that  were  roaming  over 
the  Western  plains  as  late  as  1879,  ever  existed  in  such  count 
less  numbers.  Now  that  his  extermination  is  complete  and 
every  bone  had  been  picked  up  from  the  plains.  From  his 
Sharp's  rifle  the  hunter  has  fired  his  last  salute  over  his  re 
mains,  and  the  lobo  wolves  and  the  coyotes  in  badlands  sing 
their  nightly  requiem  over  his  grave. 

The  End. 


A  7 


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